


Episode 3-18 - "Trial by Fire"

by stgjr



Series: Undiscovered Frontier Season 3 - "The Coming Storm" [18]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Battlestar Galactica (2003), Original Work
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Multiple Crossovers, Multiverse, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-24 12:05:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16639751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stgjr/pseuds/stgjr
Summary: With their new allies the Aurora crew launch an attack to rescue Julia and Miko.





	1. Chapter 1

**Teaser**  
  
  
Through the clear forcefields of their respective cells, Julia Andreys looked over her fellow prisoner. The young woman, who had introduced herself as Miko, was on the lean side in build, wearing a slightly tattered sleeveless vest of red with gold trim and pants of matching color. Her dark hair, shoulder length, was disheveled, much as Julia's own blond hair was. Amber-toned eyes looked to Julia with shame and frustration welling inside of them.  
  
All things considered, Miko was the better off of the two of them. Julia herself was ragged from Fassbinder's abuses. For the untold time since the ordeal began, she'd been wearing the same clothes she'd had on when the attack on New Liberty began; a white tank top and burgundy red shorts with a sports bra of matching color below the tank top. The colors were now faded from days of sweat and immersion in the fluid her captors used for healing her.  
  
The question of time was bewildering for Julia. Between the torture sessions and the time she spent unconscious from them, she wasn't sure how many days had passed since she was captured during the SS exiles' attack on New Liberty. She wasn't even sure what happened to the others. Was the Colony gone? Had her ship, the _Aurora_ , been destroyed in the attack? She could remember that Cylon working with Fassbinder, the SS officer who oversaw the attack, talking about a similar strike against Gersal. Was it possible that everyone she knew and loved was dead?  
  
No. No, Julia would _not_ let herself consider that. That was the road to despair, a despair that would crush her spirit far more thoroughly than the torture Fassbinder delighted in inflicting on her.  
  
It was as much to escape such thoughts as it was to satisfy curiosity that she returned her attention to Miko. The young woman brimmed with frustrated energy, unsurprising given what she'd said. That she felt she had to help Julia, to stop what was being done to her, and why she felt that way.  
  
"What did you mean?" asked Julia. "When you said you were 'the Avatar'?"  
  
Miko turned her head to face Julia. "It's who I am. What I am. The Avatar is… I am responsible for the balance on my world. The balance between the Nations, between the Human World and the Spirit World. The Avatar is the only one who can bend all four elements instead of just one."  
  
"Bend?"  
  
"It is our word, perhaps the translation does not work so well with your language." Miko opened her fist. Julia watched as, for a moment, a flicker of flame flashed into being over Miko's palm.  
  
The collar around her neck lit up. There was the distinct sound of an electrical device activating and Miko's body seized up. She let out a cry of pain and clenched the fist again, banishing the flame from existence.  
  
"The Avatar is reborn in a cycle within the Four Nations, one nation to the next," she continued, her voice more hoarse given her earlier cry of pain. "Air Nomads, Water Tribes, Earth Union, Fire Nation. I am Princess Miko of the Fire Nation, and I am the Avatar of this cycle, born the day that Avatar Komin died."  
  
Julia nodded as understanding came to her. "So… the people from each nation can use, can 'bend', the element their nation is named for, but only you can bend all four?"  
  
"Not all are born benders. But yes," said Miko. "It's a heavy responsibility. The Avatar keeps the peace among the Nations. It's my duty to protect people. People like you, Julia Andreys." She closed her eyes, tears brimming in them. "It's why I surrendered to these 'Nazis', so they would spare the people of Tangshan."  
  
"But they didn't."  
  
"No. They opened fire anyway. They made me _watch_."  
  
Julia didn't find it hard to imagine who ordered _that_. "Fassbinder?"  
  
"The one with the evil eyes?" Miko shuddered. "I can _feel_ the darkness of his spirit. The hatred."  
  
"His entire society is built on that. Hating those they consider inferior. Enslaving or exterminating them." Julia grimaced as she shifted into a sitting position. Her body still ached. "Your people are spacefaring?"  
  
"Yes. We first reached into the void during Avatar Korra's lifetime, and it was during Komin's that the Five Nations went to other suns."  
  
"You only said four nations before, what's the fifth?" Julia asked.  
  
"The United Republic. It is a combination of people from all four nations that was founded after the Hundred Year War, created by Avatar Aang and my ancestor Fire Lord Zuko nearly three hundred years ago." Miko's eyes glistened. "It's built around Republic City, the greatest city on my world." After a moment spent considering said city, Miko turned her eyes to Julia. "What of your people? Your Alliance?"  
  
"The United Alliance of Systems is, well, this is the hardest part for people to understand if they don't see it," Julia began. "We're an interuniversal society of multiple systems, including multiple copies of my homeworld Earth, made possible by technology called the interuniversal jump drive. We have worlds, colonies, in many universes, and through them contact with even more nations and species. The Alliance itself has four species currently, we Humans, of many universes, the Gersallians and Dorei of Universe N2S7, and the Alakin of A7R6."  
  
Miko looked at her in some confusion. "When you say other species, you mean... "  
  
"Aliens. Sapient life forms other than Humans. Yes."  
  
" _Amazing_." Miko's eyes widened. "What are they like?"  
  
"Well, Gersallians actually look Human. Dorei look like…"  
  
Julia stopped as she heard the distant stomp of boots hitting the floor in a steady cadence. The noise increased over seconds until two guards arrived. One lowered the forcefield for Julia's cell. The other reached in and grabbed her arm, forcing her up, shrieking at her in German to come. He and his ally both brandished stun sticks to make clear they weren't taking no for an answer.  
  
Julia got up and approached her captors. As she stepped between them both thrust their stun sticks into her torso anyway. She shrieked in both pain and surprise as her body seized up. She fell to her knees.  
  
"Leave her alone!" Miko shouted.  
  
As one guard kicked Julia in the shoulder, knocking her over, the other turned to Miko and snarled at her. "Shut up, witch!" His hand went to a device on his belt. As soon as his finger pressed down on a button, the collar around Miko's neck lit up. She let out a short cry and doubled over in pain.  
  
By the time she looked up, the guards - and Julia - were gone.  
  
  
  
  
Light years away, the _Starship Aurora_ and the Fire Nation Voidship _General Iroh_ remained side by side, both ships undergoing repairs from combat. The vessels were possessed of marked differences: the four warp nacelles on the _Aurora_ were arranged at the end of pylons from the drive hull while the _Iroh_ 's were built into the main hull, the visible weapon turrets on the _Iroh_ in contrast to the emitter banks and emplacements on the _Aurora_ , the _Iroh_ 's dark gray hull contrasting to the _Aurora_ 's azure sheen. By size the _Iroh_ was barely half the length of the _Aurora,_ although she looked more heavily-armed for her size.  
  
Activity aboard the _Iroh_ was even more hectic than on the _Aurora_ , with repair teams from the latter ship helping the surviving crew of the _Iroh_ return their vessel to full readiness.  
  
In the wardroom of said ship, those looking to aid Julia and Miko were likewise sharing information about themselves. The specific nature of the United Alliance of Systems, the existence of non-Human life in many universes, the actual existence of the interuniversal jump drive, all of these things were taken in with wonder by Princess Ursa and the Beifong cousins.  
  
The particulars of their world invited Lucy to say, "So everyone born into a particular nation has a chance to be born with the ability to manipulate, to 'bend' as you put it, the element corresponding with their origin nation?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Is this true for everyone?"  
  
"There are those in each nation who do not bend," replied Komin. "And only one person can bend more than one element, and that is the Avatar."  
  
"The Avatar is reborn into each nation in a cycle," Yeshe added. "Air, Water, Earth, Fire. Every Avatar is meant to be a mediator and peacekeeper, protecting the world from any force that threatens it and standing apart from the other nations."  
  
"And Miko is the current Avatar," Robert said.  
  
The three gave him an intent look. "How did you know?" Ursa asked.  
  
"I sensed it," Robert answer. "Our life energy abilities give us insights. We can sense the truth of things. Although in this case, it was easy to see she was important in some way that the SS would want her as a captive."  
  
"Our world is in turmoil over the issue," confirmed Ursa. "Some advocate negotiation for her safe return. Others support my efforts to find and free her."  
  
"Negotiation with the SS will be futile," Meridina said.  
  
"So I am convinced. And that is why my uncle, Fire Lord Daizon, authorized me to take the _General Iroh_ out to scout for her."  
  
There was a certain fierce desperation, a frustrated impatience, in the older woman's voice, and in her heart. Those present could easily notice it, whether it was from metaphysical insight, telepathy, or in Jarod's case, careful observance and deduction. Ursa, whatever her skills or capability, was ultimately a desperate mother trying to rescue her child from a threat that, to her people, was still an enigma. And all the _Aurora_ crew could do was confirm that some of her worst nightmares might very well be true, given the tendencies of Miko's captors.  
  
The Beifong cousins were quick to pick up on it as well. "Miko has a strong heart," Yeshe assured Ursa. "And I sense she is still with us."  
  
"Are you two friends of Miko?" Lucy asked. "Given neither of you are Fire Nation, from what I see."  
  
"She asked us to train her," said Komin. "Yeshe is her Airbending instructor. When she has mastered Water, she will come to me for Earthbending."  
  
"Although knowing my cousin, he has already shown her some," Yeshe remarked with a knowing smile.  
  
"Why was she out on this colony Tangshan?" Meridina asked. "Given her importance, and the raids on your colonies beforehand, surely the risk…"  
  
Ursa laughed harshly. "My daughter has a fierce spirit. She did not get along with the Water Tribe instructor we sent her to and believed she would find a better one in the outer colonies. In truth, I think she was trying to assert her independence from me."  
  
"Teenagers often do," Lucy noted. "Most anyway." She flashed a grin toward Robert.  
  
He returned it. Just as he went to speak, he felt a scream fill his being, echoed by intense pain. He gasped in shock at the intensity of that pain. Everyone turned to him and watched Robert nearly bend over.  
  
"What's wrong?" Jarod asked him.  
  
"I feel it again," Robert replied. "He's hurting her!"  
  
  
  
**Undiscovered Frontier  
_"Trial by Fire"_**  
  
  
  
  
  
There were no questions. Not a single attempt at interrogation. There was only the agony, the evil cold energy of the lightning that was a manifestation of all of the hateful and arrogant energy in Fassbinder's twisted soul. And Julia could do nothing but suffer. Her muscles twitched and spasmed, her body burned, and nothing she could do could help her escape it.  
  
Worst of all, she could feel her life slipping away, drained by that dark energy from Fassbinder. An open abyss seemed to open up around her, and she was falling toward it, falling...  
  
Julia was barely conscious when the lightning stopped. She didn't feel herself being freed from the chair, or carried away to another room in this strange city. She remained at the cusp of the abyss until the now-familiar sensation of the soothing green fluid covered her.  
  
From outside of the tank, Fassbinder watched Julia stir slightly. She couldn't move, of course, given the restraints locked around her wrists and ankles to keep her trapped in the open-topped tank. He looked over the controls and noted that her vital signs were improving slowly.  
  
"You should just end her," said a female voice. He turned his head and saw the blond Cylon, one of his teachers in the talents he'd long sought to tap. "Kill the Dawn-Bearer. She is of no use otherwise."  
"No," Fassbinder said. "She has not suffered enough. Not nearly enough for what she and her people did to us." The frustrated look gave way to a small, sinister smile. "Besides, do you not sense it? The connection to her?"  
  
The Cylon "Six" seemed to concentrate a moment. "I believe I know what you mean."  
  
"She is connected to one of them. To him, I am convinced. Dale feels what is being done to her. When she suffers, _he_ suffers. And I will use that." The smile grew as his hand went to the dial on the control. He twisted it halfway to full, sending an electrical current into the "kohltou", and watched with satisfaction as Julia's body spasmed despite the restraints.  
  
  
  
  
  
With the discussions over, Meridina and Jarod returned to the _Aurora_. Lucy remained, joining Komin in heading to engineering to help in the _General Iroh_ 's repairs. This left Ursa with Robert. She gave him a searching look as he clasped the side of the door, the color leaving his face. "You are in pain."  
  
"Not physically. I… my friend, Julia, I can feel it. She's in pain. The SS are torturing her right now." He tried and failed to blink tears from his eyes. "I need to get to that base. To get to her, to free her from… from what they're doing."  
  
Ursa approached him and, with great solemnity and sympathy, placed her hand on his shoulder. "I do not understand how these gifts of yours works. How your spirit is connected to hers. But you have the same assurance from me that your people have given us. We will reclaim your friend as well as my daughter."  
  
There was a quiet determination in her voice that Robert appreciated, even if he sensed her own lingering fears and doubts. They were just two ships, two against however many that the SS might call in. And what if their loved ones were moved? There were still so many ways they could fail here. It was frightening.  
  
As such, her words were welcome, a glimmer of hope, and Robert appreciated them. He nodded to her. "Thank you."  
  
"We should see to our duties. Miko and Captain Andreys will not be rescued by our desire alone," Ursa said. He watched her leave to resume command of her ship.  
  
  
  
  
In the heart of the _General Iroh_ 's engineering section, Lucy finished patching the power cable line that their earlier repairs had only partially restored. Afterward she checked the integrity of the repair and reassured herself it was done. She glanced toward the reactor. Purple light filled the ports of said power plant. Even now, with its output dialed down, Lucy could feel it creating a ripple in the Flow of Life.  
  
In a way, it was a marvel. The reactor they used tapped into a powerful energy source, more than the fusion or antimatter power that their technological level would otherwise permit. This greatly helped the _Iroh_ 's capability whatever the technological issues they faced. Lucy was unable to hide her interest in that aspect.  
  
And yet… yet she felt wary. Whatever the power systems tapped into, it had some connection to the Flow of Life. She didn't think it was the Flow of Life itself, not in the way the Balmeran crystal worked on the _Castle of Lions_ , but there was some kind of connection there. She couldn't help but wonder if that made the technology dangerous in some way. As she once pointed out to Cat, the Flow of Life was not merely a physical source of power. The same might be true for whatever they were using. And she felt naturally leery about it.  
  
After verifying the integrity of the power trunk with a scan, Lucy turned her head and watched Komin complete a repair as well, using his gift for manipulating metal. After he finished she said, "I suppose that you can move, I mean 'bend', metals so long as they're an earthly compound?"  
  
"That's how it works," he replied.  
  
"Including alloys? Purified metals?"  
  
"That depends. It's possible to purify or alloy a metal to remove the raw earth and make it unbendable. It's what we use in voidship hulls, for instance," he answered. "That's why I carry these." He indicated the metal plates on his belt and trousers.  
  
"I see. Options in case you're not around something earthen or with metal that still has natural impurities." She glanced to the reactor again. "I've never seen a power source like this. It's some kind of energy tap?"  
  
He nodded. "Varrick reactors draw latent energy from an alternate dimensional space. The principles have been around for a couple hundred years."  
  
"And why are they called Varrick reactors?"  
  
"For the family that did the most work in developing them," said Komin. "They were working on these kinds of energy sources as far back as Avatar Korra's time. The Varricks and their company have been refining the technology over the generations." Komin led her over to a board showing the ship's power distribution system. More of the sections were green-lit now, but a few still showed damage. "What kind of technology do you use?"  
  
"Our primary power sources use a material known as naqia, it acts as a power amplifier and absorber," she replied. "Among other exotic properties. We also use fusion reactors as a backup power supply."  
  
"Deuterium-fueled fusion?"  
  
"Usually," she confirmed.  
  
Komin nodded. "We have a backup fusion reactor for the _General Iroh_. The technology was first postulated by Gan Sing over two hundred years ago, but it was another hundred years before Fire Nation scientists successfully tested the first viable fusion core."  
  
Lucy gave him a knowing grin. "Someone's interested in studying the history of power generation science, I see."  
  
"Well… yes, that's me," Komin admitted, grinning slightly. His green eyes glinted in the light with immense satisfaction. "I've always been fascinated with machines. I've spent years studying Varrick reactors, but actually getting to work on one…"  
  
Lucy nodded in appreciation of Komin's position. It reminded her of Tom, whom she decided to introduce to Komin at the first opportunity.  
  
"Did you always want to be an engineer?" Komin asked her.  
  
"Not really," she replied. "It was just a job for me, at first. But it's been useful, and I'm not sorry I became one."  
  
Komin replied with a nod and returned to examining the power distribution network. Lucy joined him. She couldn't read the language on the displays, but the ideograms looked familiar. She used her omnitool to scan them. To her surprise the translations came right up, or at least proposed ones.  
  
Komin noticed and grinned at her. "Those… 'omnitools' your people use are impressive," he said. "I hope to get one. And they must be very well-programmed to read our language so quickly."  
  
"That's just it. It didn't," she said. "The translation programs are reading your language as Chinese."  
  
"Chinese?"  
  
"They're a nation of Earth," Lucy explained. "One of the most populous nations, in fact, and a dominant nation of Asia, our largest continent. So maybe your people are descended from Earth as well?"  
  
Komin shrugged. "I don't know. Ancient history, that's not really my field," he admitted. "I've got a cousin who might be interested, though."  
  
"I'm sure a lot of people will be, once contact is opened up between your world and the Multiverse," Lucy said.  
  
There was a look on Komin's face, one of wonder, that made Lucy smile warmly. _His people are in for quite a shock, just as we were. I hope they take it as well as he is_ , she thought.  
  
  
  
  
With her captain a captive, command of the _Aurora_ was now in the hands of the ship's First Officer. Meridina, normally a Commander but currently serving as an Acting Captain, sat in the chair that Julia usually occupied and looked over the things belonging to Julia. The trophies, the family photos, the other personal items… Meridina looked at them all and found herself hoping that Julia would be back here, where she belonged.  
  
But there was more on Meridina's mind than the fate of her superior, someone she considered a friend. For the sake of the others she had to keep a strong appearance, even as her heart still ached with the loss her people suffered from. On the desk viewer, footage from her homeworld played, showing the rescue and cleanup efforts in the wake of the Cylon attack. The reports of the losses taken in the bombardment were stabilizing at an estimate of ten million dead and over twice that number injured.  
  
It wasn't just the dead, though. The Cylons, in their attack, revealed their true nature as followers of the fallen Kohbal, the man who nearly wrecked Gersal in his war to seize control over twenty-nine centuries ago. The attack also revealed that other followers of Kohbal remained hidden after their supposed defeat and expulsion from the homeworld, as said followers had committed acts of sabotage across the planet in the minutes before the attack, ensuring the Cylons complete surprise.  
  
And they had won. That was the worst thing. Meridina, Lucy, Talara, they'd gotten away, as had Meridina's father and many others, but the Cylons succeeded. They destroyed the Great Temple off Swenya in a barrage of atomics. They did the same to the Temple of Perception and the Temple of Birth, as if to wipe Gersal clean of all references to Swenya. Many of the Order's best, many of its wisest, died to the bombs, the blades, or the atomics of the Brotherhood. She had even felt the mortal blow dealt to her mentor, _Mastrash_ Ledosh, struck down by the fallen _Mastrash_ Goras.  
  
It was all so wrong. A nightmare made reality. After all of the fights, all of the hard victories over darkness… darkness, in the end, was not vanquished, and had indeed returned to deal the Light a terrible blow.  
  
And a part of Meridina believed it to be her fault.  
  
A chime sounded at the door. She looked up and called out for the figure to enter. She was surprised to see Doctor Tusana, with her civilian wear, enter. "Doctor, how may I help you?' Meridina asked.  
  
The civilian psychiatrist gave Meridina a knowing look. When she replied, it was with a mental cast into Meridina's mind, a telepath communicating with a fellow telepath. _I am here to help you, Meridina. I can feel your grief._  
  
Meridina nodded in acknowledgment of Tusana's point, if not agreement. _It does not matter. What matters is reclaiming Julia_.  
  
_Do not ignore your pain, Meridina. It could consume you.  
  
I am not ignoring it. I am simply leaving it to the side so that I might do my duty_, Meridina cast back. _Captain Andreys' life may hang in the balance. I cannot take time right now.  
  
You will do her little good if you can't function._ Seeing Meridina's look Tusana shook her head. _I will be here if you need me._ With that she turned away and left the room.  
  
Meridina promptly returned to work. She had little time to complete it before a blue light appeared on the back of her left hand, timed with a tone from her omnitool. She relayed the call to the desk. "Meridina here."  
  
" _I was just lettin' ye know that th' repairs are complete, sir_ ," answered Commander Scott. The Starfleet legend's voice had the usual pride in getting his ship back in action. " _We're ready t' go find th' Captain whenever ye're ready_."  
  
"We will be leaving as soon as our new allies are ready, Commander. Thank you for your timely repairs. Meridina out." She cut the line and sat in the quiet for a moment, considering Tusana's words, and the feeling in her heart.  
  
  
  
  
  
Robert, Lucy, and Talara, along with Komin, stepped onto the _General Iroh_ 's bridge. It was a rather larger chamber than the one they were used to on the _Aurora_ , more like a major command operations chamber for a station, with two levels and multiple stations. Ursa sat in the middle chair with Yeshe standing beside her. Ahead of her, another member of the crew was at the helm, freeing Talara from having to execute that duty again. "I am informed our repairs are complete?" asked Ursa.  
  
"Yes, Highness," Komin answered. "Chief Lee is giving some systems a final check now, but the Sato drive is ready."  
  
"Sato drive?" asked Talara.  
  
"It is a space-warp drive," Komin said. "Based on…" He quieted at seeing Ursa's look, as she was clearly not interested in hearing him recite the history of the technology.  
  
"From what I saw, your ship's best sustainable speed is about Warp 7 on our charts," Lucy said. "The _Aurora_ can easily match that."  
  
Robert didn't quite keep the aggravation at that from showing on his face. Warp 7 wasn't a slow warp speed, not at all, but it was still quite slow compared to what the _Aurora_ could do, even at a leisurely cruise warp, due to the Darglan-designed warp drive. _But they didn't have Darglan data. We should probably be happy they're capable of Warp 7 and not 5._  
  
"Before we depart, I would ask the status of our communications array," Ursa said. "I would like to update Admiral Hanraq on our situation."  
  
Komin shook his head. "Enemy fire ripped away the transceiver completely. We can't contact home."  
  
"Then I will do so," said Yeshe.  
  
Komin gave his stoic cousin an uncomfortable look. "This far out?" he asked. "Has it even been tried this far from into the frontier?"  
  
"I do not believe so," she said. "But I should still be capable of reaching home. I can relay our situation to the others.  
  
"Then do so," said Ursa. "Captain, your… teleportation machines, they do not work at warp?"  
  
"Only if velocities are matched exactly, and they work best if both ships are using them to ensure a connection," Robert replied. "I'm not sure portable transporters would be sufficient."  
  
"Probably not for warp-speed beaming," Lucy offered.  
  
Robert nodded. He had a look of impatience growing on his expression. "I'll be returning to the _Aurora_ before we depart, I have reports to file for our leaders. I'll leave Lieutenant Lucero and Ensign Talara here so that we have working communications between the ships."  
  
"I will arrange quartering for them," Ursa answered. "We should depart now. We cannot give our enemy time to flee."  
  
"Agreed, we can't," Robert said. He tapped at his omnitool. "Dale to _Aurora_ , one to beam back."  
  
He transported out. Moments later, their ships accelerated and made the jump to warp.  
  
For his part, Robert was not entirely truthful when he attributed his return to filing reports. He went straight to his quarters, a desperate plan forming in his mind.  
  
  
  
  
Sharp, harsh pain filled Julia's head, and her arms struggled in vain against the restraints holding her wrists to the arms of the Aurora Chair. Aside from her instinctive struggles, Julia could do nothing to fight back. All she could do was try to bury herself in other memories, cherished memories.  
  
Whether it was irritation with her condition or perhaps a desire for amusement, the memory she found herself dwelling on was the time Robert put an entire canister of her play-doh into the harvester. She recalled how upset that made her when she was young. "How could you do this, Robby?!" she'd scolded angrily, drawing an uncertain look from her close friend. "That was _my_ play-doh!"  
  
These same words echoed in the chamber. On the screen the image of a young boy dominated, along with an empty plastic container.  
  
Something about the memory drew her in. Not just recalling how upset it made her at the time, but the genuine look of contrition, the realization that an impulsive, selfish act caused harm to someone he cared for. The pain of the Aurora Chair became distant, less a drill boring into her mind and more of a pinprick, a splinter at the edge of it.  
  
"I'm sorry, Julie," the child Robby said. "I just… I thought it'd be fun. I didn't mean to make you upset."  
  
"Why didn't you ask me?! You know better!"  
  
While Julia seemed to grow still, Fassbinder looked at the viewer and frowned. Somehow she was resisting, that he was certain of. How, he couldn't say for sure. There was something about her energy, her being, that the Chair seemed to be failing to reach. But it was infuriating regardless.  
  
"Turn up the chair," he ordered the technician.  
  
"It is already at the maximum setting, _Herr Brigadeführer_ ,' the man replied. "I cannot intensify the effect any further."  
  
Fassbinder considered that for a moment. When he spoke again, it was to bark, "Shut it down!"  
  
The technician did so. Julia's body relaxed. She drew a breath in. Slowly, she seemed to come back to recognition of her surroundings. Fassbinder sensed confusion. "The Chair must be having an effect upon her memory state," he said to the technician. " _Scharführer_ , I want it inspected. Thoroughly."  
  
" _Jawohl_!"  
  
He gestured to Julia. "Take her to the tank," he instructed the others.  
  
  
  
  
Light years away, seated on the floor of his quarters' living area, Robert opened his eyes. He drew in a breath as the sharp pain that he'd felt through his head faded, leaving as its mark the sweat covering his brow and the memory of that pain.  
  
Regardless, a small smile crossed his face. "It worked," he mumbled. "It _worked_."


	2. Chapter 2

Activity in the SS base was escalating from the preparations for evacuation. Fassbinder noted with approval the efficiency of his men as they took up everything that could be removed. Engineers started the process of preparing demolition, should annihilating the alien city from orbit prove impossible. Others catalogued the stores of everything from weapons to the powerful combat stims that the SS, given its deficiencies in numbers, was issuing to all combat personnel, preparing everything for transport to an evacuation ship.  
  
From his office, Fassbinder monitored all of this from screens. As he did, he considered whether to escalate his prisoner's torment or not. The way she was interfering with the Aurora Chair was vexing, but the data was still valuable. That argued against any further use of the nanobots or the shocks in the tank.  
  
But yet… he wanted to _feel_ her suffer. His hate for Julia Andreys, for what she represented, for what she accomplished, _demanded_ she suffer. The dark energies within him stirred at the thought, urging him to it. _Order them to turn the dial. Commence the shocks. MAKE HER SCREAM_.  
  
"Petty sadism does not suit a man of your power, Fassbinder," said the Twelve. Cosmetic alterations aside, she was a clone of one of the accursed _Aurora_ officers, Lucy Lucero. Whenever Fassbinder looked at her, he couldn't help but remember that Lucero had once batted him aside with barely an effort, back on New Brittany. He looked forward to the day he got a rematch with her.  
  
"You waste time," the Six added. "The evacuation plans…"  
  
"...are proceeding," Fassbinder finished for her, feeling a little irritated. He felt a deep suspicion that the Cylons wanted Julia Andreys' death for some unknown reason. He fully intended to give it to them, but only when he chose to do so. "But my plan to destroy the _Aurora_ requires that she remain alive." Fassbinder checked his reports for a moment before continuing. "Dale will sense her death. That would spoil everything. But so long as she is alive, he will feel it, and he will tell the others so. When she is in pain, they will know, so they will be desperate to end it." Fassbinder grinned ferociously. "And I will use that desperation to my advantage."  
  
The Cylons said nothing in response. Fassbinder turned his attentions to his work while his hand reached for his comm. "Fassbinder to tank room. Return the prisoner to her cell," he instructed the guards. "We will try the Chair again soon."  
  
  
  
  
Miko watched in quiet horror when Julia was returned to the cell. She collapsed bonelessly to the hard floor the moment the guards released her, neither bothering to give her a final blow from the stun sticks this time. They turned the forcefield back on and departed. On the other side of it, Julia was on her stomach, unmoving.  
  
"Julia. Are you…" Miko stopped herself from finishing the question "Are you okay?" It was clear she wasn't. She was simply too weak to move.  
  
A deep despair threatened to fill Miko, a despair at never seeing her mother again, nor the Beifong cousins, or her grand uncle… none of those whom she loved. She would be trapped here, alone save for a woman who, at any time, might succumb to the abuse their captives delighted in inflicting on her. And when Julia finally died, she would be truly alone…  
  
_Or maybe not_ , she considered. She recalled some of what Master Gyatsun taught her about the Avatar's spiritual abilities. It took effort, too, and her situation helped with that. The truth was that Miko often felt impatient at the stodgy old Airbender, preferring to train with Yeshe.  
  
But she wasn't such a poor student that she garnered nothing from those lessons. The spiritual side of who she was, that was important too.  
  
Miko sat on the floor of her cell and began the long, slow work of quieting her mind.  
  
  
  
  
The _General Iroh_ had the kind of austere functionality Lucy expected given both their technological level and the behavior of the crew. Her quarters, apparently those for VIPs, were only half the size of those she had on the _Aurora_ , and were quite spartan. The walls were painted in deep reds and golds, presumably to make the living quarters aesthetically appealing, but the bed was little more than a cot and the shower barely a walk-in closet.  
  
After some time using the computer hookup and her omnitool to research the ship and these people, Lucy decided to give the communications system another check. After her trip through the vessel, she found Komin already inspecting the guts of what had been their primary comm transceiver. "What's the verdict?"  
  
"Chief Lee was right," he said. "Even if we could construct a new set, the damage in here is too extensive. They'll have to rebuild the comm system in the docks."  
  
Lucy glanced over it and nodded in agreement. "No secondaries?"  
  
"The designers judged them to be unnecessary, I suppose. Or impossible."  
  
"Or, more likely, a lower priority to other systems. A tradeoff that's biting you in the rear now." Lucy had a thought. "What if we used the _Aurora_ to send a message to your people?"  
  
"I'm not sure your communications are compatible," he replied. "Ours relies on the existence of the Spirit World, and from what you've said, it's unique to our universe."  
  
"Yeah, about that… Different layers of reality are known to us, things like the various bands of hyperspace, but this 'Spirit World' you're talking about…"  
  
"It's linked to our world at a fundamental level," Komin said. "It's played an important role in our development of technology ever since Avatar Korra left the portals open. Observation of the Spirit World is what led Korra's granddaughter Yasuko Sato to the discoveries that proved the possibility of the space-warp drive."  
  
Lucy blinked. "You mean you… you can actually _enter_ this plane? You have openings to it on your homeworld?"  
  
"Three, yes. To enter physically, anyway. There are other ways into it. It's why Yeshe is our best hope of getting a message back to the Republic and the Fire Nation without forcing us to go back ourselves."  
  
"Your cousin?" Curious, Lucy asked, "Is this your way of saying she can enter your Spirit World mentally?"  
  
"She can project her spirit in." Seeing Lucy's increased curiosity, he added, "Follow me."  
  
They went back into the section of the ship with private quarters. In a set of quarters much like her own assigned room, Yeshe Beifong was seated on a map in what seemed a universal meditative posture, legs folded under her and hands on knees.  
  
Lucy felt a kind of rippling in the Flow of Life, not unlike that of the ship's power core. Yeshe's being seemed… diverted, not entirely present anymore. Her body was almost in a sort of stasis, her breathing quiet and shallow, but not labored.  
  
The part that really gained her attention was that the feeling she had from Yeshe was not unlike the general feeling of the Flow of Life in this universe. As if it were also diverted in some way.  
  
"I'm worried for her," Komin admitted.  
  
"Oh?" Lucy turned her head and faced him. The look on his face was drawn and pensive. "Why? Because you're so far from your homeworld?"  
  
He nodded. "It's known that the connection to the Spirit World gets weaker this far out. Our communications systems aren't as effected, but attempting to enter the Spirit World this way is said to be harder. Much harder. There's no guarantee she will be able to keep herself there long enough to find another of the Airbenders, or anyone else, to tell them about what we've found."  
  
"This is dangerous, then?"  
  
"I'm not sure. This isn't something I'm familiar with," he admitted. "Yeshe is convinced she can manage it."  
  
"Then we should have faith in her that she will," said Lucy. "Even if it's not easy."  
  
"You're right, it's just… I've known Yeshe since I was little. I don't want to lose her too." Komin took in a breath before turning for the door. "I'm going to get some rest. You?"  
  
"I think I will too," she said. "I'll see you later."  
  
"Yes."  
  
With that, they parted ways.  
  
  
  
  
The lights in Robert's quarters were set just above the dim level. He was in the living area adjacent to the bedroom, seated on the floor on the mat he'd carried with him from Gersal after finishing the training to control his now-enhanced talents. He breathed in and out slowly, focusing himself in meditation.  
  
The link he shared with Julia was stronger than before. He could sense she was resting. Fassbinder was presumably busy with other matters. That he was sparing her made Robert feel gratified, but worried. Given his whole-hearted embrace of darkness, all of Fassbinder's nastiest traits were stronger now, including sadism and hatred. If he wasn't trying to make Julia suffer now, it implied a _reason_.  
  
One such reason was that he might be too busy overseeing an evacuation, which meant they were running out of time to get to Julia and Miko.  
  
The thought of her being gone came roaring back, and the reaction was fear. Solid, unrelenting fear. He couldn't imagine a world without her in it, he didn't even want to try, and having to live in it… the mere idea was maddening. A source of maddening anger.  
  
It had more than one source, more than one target. He was angry at the enemy, certainly, for what they'd done to his adopted home, for what they were doing to Julia, for all of the suffering and terror they'd inflicted.  
  
He was also angry at himself. They were here because of him. Because of his mistakes. He'd helped start the war before the Alliance was ready for it, for one, when he let his fears dominate his decisions at 33LA. Two years on, and that mistake haunted him, all the more since those very mistakes brought about the nightmare he'd foreseen. The attack on New Liberty, Julia taken as a prisoner, Beth nearly dying…  
  
That made him think of New Liberty. If he had come for Julia first… then she wouldn't be suffering. He made the choice to not go to her rescue, to walk into Fassbinder's trap instead. A trap he only escaped because of telepath allies that came to his rescue. Allies that would have rescued Beth anyway while he was rescuing Julia.  
  
_I didn't know_ , he thought to himself, but the greater part of him rejected that defense. How could he have not known? With all of this power, his talents, how couldn't he see how it would go? How was it that _he didn't know to save Julia instead?_  
  
After all, hadn't he lost enough already? His grandparents, his parents, his sister… why should he have to lose her too?  
  
Robert felt power in this anger. A deep power, cold and hot at the same time. He instinctively drew back from it, as one might pull a hand back from an open flame. But even as he did, a part of him felt a visceral rush at the thought of it. That deep, dark part that lies in any living, thinking being's heart, the one that is drawn to power like a moth to flame, drawn to strength, to the means to impose one's will upon a universe that seemed to just not care…  
  
A treacherous voice echoed in his being. _And if it's what you need to save her? Fassbinder is more powerful now, and he has allies._  
  
At the periphery of his senses, Robert heard his door chime. He ignored it for the moment, dwelling on the problems before him. The chime repeated. When he gave no answer, it went off again… and again…. and again…  
  
"Fine! Come in!" he snapped irritably.  
  
The door slid open. Meridina stepped in, wearing her uniform. The fourth gold strip on her collar was another reminder of Julia's absence. Her very being radiated concern. "I sense it in you," she said. "Your feelings of anger are calling up the darkness within."  
  
"As you've said before, we all have it," he replied. "I'm not giving into it."  
  
"Not right now. But the next time you face Fassbinder?" Meridina took a seat at his small table and apprised him with a worried look. "You are angry and frustrated by him. It is becoming hatred."  
  
Robert's eyes opened and he looked at her, a hard light to his green eyes she'd never seen before. "We had him on Gamma Piratus," Robert said. "He should have died there. But we were sloppy. We let him get away. And then on New Brittany, when he escaped Lucy, and then in Germania… And every time he gets away from us, Meridina, he causes more suffering, and he grows more powerful."  
  
"I am aware."  
  
"We should have made sure," Robert said. "We should have made sure he was dead on Gamma Piratus. Or any of those other places."  
  
"We did all we could," Meridina reminded him. "You know full well that part of being a _swevyra'se_ is knowing that distinction. We do what we can. We do not try. But neither do we regret those things that we cannot do."  
  
"But because we didn't get him, look at what he's done!" Robert's fists clenched. "Look at what he did to New Liberty! What he did to Beth! He was a moment away from killing her! If Colin and the others hadn't…" He lowered his head, replaying the scene in the Government House foyer again. "I felt her ready to die. Beth stopped herself from weeping. She wanted to die with dignity, to not give him the satisfaction of her crying or begging to live, even though she was desperate to live. What he did to her is going to stick with her forever, Meridina. Because we weren't good enough, _I_ wasn't good enough. And now he's got Julia, and he's hurting her, because I didn't see it coming, because I didn't do what I needed to in order to protect them both!"  
  
Something in his words struck the aching wound in Meridina's heart, echoing with her own. _You weren't good enough to forsee the Brotherhood attack. You weren't good enough to save Ledosh from Goras._ Irritation with that thinking filled her. "You are being arrogant," Meridina chided. "Presumptuous. You alone cannot do everything, Robert, and your insistence on this matter is egotistical and vain. You are allowing your expanded power to lead you astray. To 'go to your head', the others would say."  
  
Robert's face, his being, betrayed his surprise at her harshness.  
  
"There are things you cannot do. That we cannot do. If we do not accept this, then we create frustration for ourselves. Frustration and anger, and anger is on the path to darkness. Much as you displayed when you attacked the Aristo on Toutaine Station, an act of darkness that I once thought you incapable of."  
  
Robert remembered that dark feeling when he was on Toutaine, listening to the Aristo who called himself Haron mocking him about Julia, about everything. He'd nearly broken the man himself, but stopped before he could go that far. But only just that far; he'd crossed a line, and he knew it.  
  
That she was right only made him feel worse. It wasn't helped by what he also felt. In his feelings and sentiments, Meridina saw her own mirrored. She was feeling frustrated by what happened on Gersal. Frustrated… and guilty.  
  
Something about that gnawed at him. Here she was, dispensing advice to him that she herself wasn't heeding. She insisted he accept what happened and move on, but she wasn't doing the same for herself. "Maybe you should take your own advice," Robert said, not quite nastily, but coldly.  
  
Meridina's expression blanched.  
  
"You blame yourself for Gersal," he continued. "I can feel it in you. You think you should have been faster. Stronger. More prescient. Then maybe Ledosh would be alive, more of your people would have survived. Maybe even you would have prevented the loss of the Great Temple."  
  
The response was Meridina closing her eyes. His words hit home.  
  
Robert swallowed. A bitter part of him wanted to point out the hypocrisy again. To hammer home that she had no right to demand he do something she would not. He only barely kept that bitter feeling down. "It's more than that, though, isn't it? There's a part of you that wonders if this might not have happened if you hadn't made the choices you did. That you and Ledosh, by promoting the Alliance, investigating our place in the Prophecy of the Dawn, by all of that, you made this attack possible. Maybe inevitable. That if you'd listened to Karesl and Goras from the getgo, none of this would have happened."  
  
Meridina's eyes met his. She didn't need to say it.  
  
"I think you're wrong about that. And I think you know that." Robert nodded at her. "And maybe you're right about me. But you're not the one feeling her pain, Meridina. He's torturing Julia _and I feel it_. And the reason Julia's a prisoner is _my choice_. I _chose_ to go for Beth instead, and if I hadn't have… if I hadn't have, odds are Beth would've lived anyway, that Colin and Max and Governor Kuhln would have saved her, and I could have helped Julia get away. My choices are why Julia is a prisoner now. Why she's not home. Why she's suffering. You're asking me to ignore my part in that outcome, _and I can't_. Please don't ask me to. Not now."  
  
Meridina said nothing more. With pain in her own heart, pain at how true Robert's words about her feelings, she stood up and left without a further word.  
  
Robert watched her go before returning to his meditation. Whatever else, he had to be ready if Julia started hurting again.  
  
  
  
  
Julia stirred slowly, fitfully, from her place on the floor of her bare cell, bare save for the bucket that was meant to be her toilet as another act of degradation. While the green fluid she was being repeatedly dumped into was healing her body, she still ached everywhere, especially in her head.  
  
The sound of conversation prompted Julia to turn her head toward Miko's cell. Her fellow captive was seated on the floor in a legs-crossed meditative posture. Across from her was a human figure, a man seated similarly to Miko. An aura of blue light surrounded him, giving him a spectral look. The man's face had a soft expression; he looked to be early middle-aged, with a pointed beard of light gray color, to match the fringe of similar color at the temples that streaked through darker, close-cut hair. He was wearing a suit of dark green fringed with an earthy brown color. His eyes were heterochromatic: one amber, one green. Physically he looked to be in the peak of health even with middle-age, with broad shoulders, although his expression gave the sense of a "gentle giant" sort of person.  
  
Julia had just enough time to take in the features of the figure before he seemed to dissipate into a fog, vanishing completely in the span of a couple seconds. Miko drew in a sigh and lowered her head.  
  
The thought moved through Julia's mind to ask what she'd just seen, but before she could speak, the familiar thumping of boots to the floor heralded the arrival of the SS guards. Julia drew in a quick breath and steeled herself for the resumption of her ordeal.  
  
  
  
  
With the hours to their arrival dwindling down, Meridina took what she imagined would be her last quiet meal period left to her. It was necessary to rebalance herself given her discussion with Robert and the emotions it drew up, her fears for him and her feelings over what happened on Gersal.  
  
Hargert, with his customary diligence, seemed prepared for her with a meal suited to lifting her spirits. The _liyume_ , a Gersallian dish comparable to what Humans called "dumplings", had a rich flavor to it that was authentically Gersallian (Hargert's previous experiments in mixing Earth-native spices or ingredients had been of mixed success, and in this case were undesired). Altogether it worked as a comfort food, and Meridina greatly enjoyed it.  
  
But it did not, by itself, lift her spirits. As much as she tried to ignore it, Meridina was working with a broken heart. The horror of that day on Gersal, with the Cylon attack and the fall of the Temple aided by the treachery of the long-hidden Brotherhood, it kept coming back to her. Indeed, even the welcoming dish seemed to sour in her mouth as she contemplated everything that happened.  
  
The sour look on her face was noted by the new arrival at her table. "Do ye mind, lass?" Meridina lifted her head to notice Commander Scott, a mug of coffee in one hand and a plate of food in the other. When she quietly gestured toward a chair he took it, setting his meal down. "Well now, ye dinnae seem t' be enjoyin' yer meal," he said to her. "Still thinkin' of home?"  
  
"The meal is fine. I am simply distracted." She took another bite of it, as if to ward off any further inquiry.  
  
"Nobody blames ye for thinkin' of home," he assured her.  
  
Meridina nodded in reply. But she said nothing. Se could think of nothing to say, nothing that wouldn't admit of the feelings inside of her.  
  
There was no hiding them from the veteran engineer beside her. "Ye're tryin' t' be strong for th' crew's sake. Aye, I get that," Scotty said gently. "But ye cannae ignore what's on yer mind forever, Meridina. Ye have t' face it."  
  
Behind the gentle persistence in the old man's voice, Meridina sensed his warm spirit, and his desire to help her. Not just out of general concern for the younger officers and crew, but from his understanding of the pressures they were under, and of the terrible things she'd endured.  
  
He was right, of course. Meridina couldn't avoid facing her feelings. Not forever, not even for much longer. She had to face her fears, her guilt, if she was to lead them effectively.  
  
The irony made her want to laugh bitterly. She'd never imagined being in this position, having to command the _Aurora_ herself. Being the Captain. Even when she accepted Julia's request and decided to become First Officer, she'd never imagined it coming about, as logical as it was. Now she felt regret for accepting the promotion and new post. This wasn't what she'd wanted with her life, after all. She was, or at least had been, a _swevyra'se_ , a Knight of Life, sworn to the Code of Swenya. Her place was in the thick of danger, using her talents to aid, not sitting in a chair commanding the fates of two thousand people.  
  
Although that didn't really matter in the long run, did it? Regardless of what she wanted, this was where she was, and whatever her choices, Gersal had burned. The Temple was gone, millions were dead, the Order was reeling. Nearly broken, maybe.  
  
What would this do to her people? For the Gersal she knew? Change was inevitable, but would it be for good or ill?  
  
With all of that weight in her heart, it was no surprise that tears formed in her eyes. They began the journey down her face to her chin in seconds, followed by more tears, an even greater flow of them.  
  
"We have lost so much," she admitted to Mister Scott. "The Cylons destroyed the Temples with atomic weapons. They did everything they could to annihilate the legacy of Swenya from our world. Three thousand years of history that inspired my people to be what they have become, and the Cylons annihilated it in less than a day. They knocked down the Yahana Towers in Jantarihal. The fires they caused burned half of Iltahad's parks. And the death they brought. They… they killed millions in Trubin alone. Ten million of my people are dead. Ten million." She shook her head, fighting back a sniffle. "Light help us, we have never taken a shock like this. Not since… the Brotherhood. Which they are led by!"  
  
"Aye, it's a great loss, an' a terrible shock," Scott agreed. "It's more than that, though, isn't?"  
  
She nodded. "I am haunted by the thought that I brought this about. That if I had not pursued the path I did, Goras would not have fallen. The Order would not have lost its heart. It would not have fallen into the malaise that left it vulnerable. We would have seen this attack coming." She wiped at the tears on her face. "Ten million of my people, Mister Scott, and I may have contributed with my choices. How can I continue this with such a weight on my _swevyra_?"  
  
The elder Scotsman listened patiently to her. When Meridina's question came his way, he replied softly. "Ye have t' remember that ye didn't make th' choices that caused all this. Goras is th' one who couldn't accept th' way things were goin'. He decided he'd rather murder ye. And nothin' ye did would've stopped th' Cylons' attack. They were comin' for ye at some point. That's clear t' us all, lass." He reached a hand over and laid it on her lower arm, a gesture of reassurance. "Meridina, my heart weeps for what ye've lost. I dinnae know anyone who wouldn't be wonderin' what ye're wonderin'. But ye cannae forget all th' good ye've done with th' crew. The lives ye've saved, an' everythin' good that's come of that. That Cylon lass ye brought aboard, for starters. Ye showed her mercy when it would've been easy t' kill her, an' she helped save th' people o' New Caprica. Ye taught Lucy how t' use these skills o' yers, an' Robert as well, an' look at what they've done."  
  
Meridina's blue eyes met his, tears flowing freely from them. "They have done so much," she agreed.  
  
"Aye. Ye've accomplished a lot since ye came t' th' _Aurora_ , Meridina. It's no wonder Captain Andreys asked ye t' be the First Officer."  
  
"We both know I was not her first choice," Meridina said. "Jarod and Nicholas turned her down."  
  
"Dinnae change th' fact she asked ye," he pointed out. "An' I think she was right."  
  
"But I… now I must be the Captain," Meridina said gently. "And I am not sure this is what I am meant to be. The role comes naturally to Julia in a way I do not share. The others are concerned with Julia's replacement and that I am not being offered the command, but when I consider myself, I must admit I do not wish it. I would only accept it for the sake of the others."  
  
A twinkle formed in Scotty's eye. "Aye, I know what ye mean."  
  
"You have commanded before, have you not?" she asked.  
  
"Well, lass, back in th' day, I was third-in-command on th' _Enterprise_ ," he said. "When Captain Kirk an' Mister Spock had t' be elsewhere, I was left in command. An' I admit, I was never happy at th' chance, never at all. I only cared t' be an engineer."  
  
That fit with the sentiments Meridina had long noticed in the older man. Scott's engineering spaces were his pride and joy. "But you commanded when necessary. Much as I am now."  
  
"Aye." The twinkle in his eye remained. "Did I ever tell ye about th' time I took th' _Kobayashi Maru_ test?"  
  
Meridina thought of the name. It sounded like it came from the Human language of the Japanese nation, but she was not familiar with the significance. "I do not believe so. I am uncertain of what this test is?"  
  
"It's a simulation that Starfleet used t' run command candidates through, a test o' character ye might say," he explained. "Well, I'd been put in Command School, an' th' test came up. As ye can imagine, I was nae t' happy t' be in there in th' first place…"  
  
  
  
  
While Commander Scott's story did not directly pertain to her situation, Meridina found her spirits much lifted by the time her conversation with the engineer was over. Her heart still ached at everything happening, but she knew that for the moment she must cast aside uncertainty and be the captain the crew needed. Julia needed them all, and Meridina would do her best to make sure the ship and crew would come through.  
  
After her meal she returned to the bridge. Locarno, Tra'dur, and Cat were all on duty, with Lieutenant Luneri standing in for Angel to allow her a meal period. At the science station Cat was busy examining readings. "This local space is just… really interesting. Some of these readings remind me of the Fracture, but I'm not seeing anything else that matches. Stars are, roughly, where they're supposed to be, there's no spatial warping effect, and no reports of illness from anyone with psionic or metaphysical perception."  
  
"No sign of a DT field yet?" Jarod asked.  
  
"No. But…" She checked something. "The target system is now on long-range sensors."  
  
"And still no DT field."  
  
"Then wherever this is, it is not a former base of the Darglan," Meridina noted. "Or at least, not one they made after acquiring the dimensional-transcendence field technology. Perhaps it is another repurposed base like the one we found in N2C5."  
  
"Going by sensors, there are signs of power signatures in the system, consistent with starships." Cat examined her readings even more closely. "And I am detecting a warp trail near here, the subspace wake is consistent with the anti-matter pulse reactors the Reich uses."  
  
"So we know the coordinates are good," Jarod noted. "The question is, what's waiting for us there?"  
  
"An excellent question. Do you have a proposal to find out, Commander?" Meridina asked.  
  
"Long range probes could scout the system for us," said Jarod. "Even if they're destroyed, the data we get before they're lost could be invaluable."  
  
"Could the _Koenig_ not go on ahead of us and quietly reconnoiter the system?" Tra'dur suggested. "They have a greater chance of going undetected."  
  
Meridina waited for Jarod's reaction to the suggestion. It was a nod. "That would also work," he agreed. "If they stay under cloak and are careful about transmissions."  
  
"Agreed," she said, before keying the tac comm. " _Koenig_ , we have the enemy system on sensors. I would like the system scouted _."_  
  
" _Sounds good to me_ ," said Zack. " _We're accelerating now._ "  
  
The _Koenig_ 's warp engines intensified the field around the ship. The ship accelerated until she moved beyond the _Aurora_ and _General Iroh_.  
  
  
  
  
The drilling agony of the Aurora Chair assailed Julia's mind yet again. She writhed against the restraints of the chair, feeling as if her mind was coming apart under its relentless, mechanical assault. Fassbinder hovered over her like a bird of prey, eager, and frustrated at the prey for not succumbing.  
  
With her brain feeling it was on fire, Julia delved into memories that promised any sort of respite. The pain she was in caused a memory association to form. Her thoughts turned to after Robert's grandmother died. They were just eight years old. That cooling summer day so long ago came back to her; the rolling fields of wheat of the Dale farm, the solemn quiet of the family home… her parents came over to give their condolences for the Dale family's loss.  
  
On the porch, eight year old Julie found eight year old Robby, sitting on the stairway with tears flowing down his face. "Oma's gone," he wept. "Oma's gone."'  
  
Memories of Oma - Anna Dale, Robert's German-born grandmother - were of a warm elderly woman who cooked delicious food and delighted in teaching " _meine kleiner_ " her native language. Those memories reverted back to the porch, where she'd responded by embracing her dear friend and playmate closely, crying with him, not so much for grief over Anna's death as it was sympathy for his grief.  
  
As they embraced, the pain in her brain decreased again. Indeed, it felt like it had never been there. She was just here, a child again, with her poor suffering friend. Her poor Robby, hurt so much from losing his beloved grandmother. She clung all the tighter to him, as if she could banish the deep pain she felt within him.  
  
The image of this on the Chair's viewer brought a derisive, frustrated snort froom Fassbinder. He eyed the technician, who shrugged. "I'm sorry, _Herr Brigadeführer_. The technology is at maximum."  
  
Fassbinder snarled at that. He looked to Julia for a moment before pulling the headpiece away from her forehead, shutting down the machine automatically. In a rapid motion his arm came up. His fist smashed into her cheek with enough force that it broke one of her teeth. "You will yield!" His face drew close, his eyes glaring hatred at her.  
  
The blow jolted Julia back to reality. She looked into Fassbinder's eyes and contempt appeared on her features. She rolled her tongue inside of her mouth until she felt the broken pieces of her damaged tooth. She collected them, and the attendant blood, and in a moment of impulsive defiance spat them into Fassbinder's eye.  
  
Fassbinder recoiled backward. Only momentary instinct kept the chips of enamel from impacting on his eye directly, his eyelid absorbing the projectiles instead. Red blood covered the right side of his face. His expression twisted into a look of deep rage. His hand went for the controls on his gauntlet.  
  
The nanobots on Julia's skin activated, flooding her nerves with pain stimuli. She cried out from the sheer agony of the experience.  
  
"I have a confession," he said, even as she writhed in the chair, barely hearing him through the intensity of her pain. "Your interrogation is, to me, meaningless. The _Führer_ ordered it and I will obey, of course, but I am not foolish enough to think we can gain immediate benefit. Your command codes have been shut off, your access to Alliance databases rescinded. The Aurora Chair may yet pull some useful intelligence from your mind, but with each passing day the worth of that knowledge decreases. Whatever your exalted status in the history of the Alliance, you are still ultimately just a starship captain. Your leaders do not share everything with you."  
  
Julia said nothing beyond letting out another strangled cry. A tightness in her chest kept the cry from reaching the volume of the last, the pain so intense the muscles in her body were contracting instinctively, trying to escape what could not be escaped. Beyond the pain, she felt a growing sense of despair, a sense that her life was going to end like this. That after everything she'd done, everything she'd accomplished, her fate was to be tortured to death by Fassbinder.  
  
"Ah." The SS man chuckled. "Well, I see you have an idea of it. You realize what your fate is to be, do you _Kapitan_?" He leaned in closer, her blood still around his eye. "I savor your suffering like a fine wine, yes. After your _crimes_ against my people, how could I not? So allow me to confirm your fears, Julia Andreys. My sole intent is to torture you. To make you feel pain, over and over and over, without end, without mercy. I want you to _suffer_. I want you and all of your friends to _suffer for what you have done_." His voice became a bitter snarl, laced with deep rage, and his unnatural yellow eyes glistened with malevolence. "Because of you and Robert Dale and the others, your Alliance _destroyed my Reich_. You burned our cities! You tore down our glories! You uplifted _untermenschen_ and aliens at the expense of the Aryan race! You _humiliated us_! And I will have my revenge for that. I will make you suffer as no other human being has ever suffered, _Kapitan_. Your anguish will be my greatest pleasure. And when the time comes and you are utterly broken - _and you will be_ \- and you are a madwoman who can only beg and mewl for mercy… I will continue to torture you anyway. Until your suffering no longer entertains me. Then I will give you to my men to do with as they please, and when it is all over, your broken corpse will be left for your precious Alliance to discover, so that they might all know how deeply they have failed you." He turned to the guards. "Take her to the kohltou tank. And I want the current on. Make her _suffer_."  
  
" _Jawohl_ , _mein Brigadeführer_."  
  
Almost as an afterthought Fassbinder turned off the nanobots, merely for the purpose of making her guards' job of transporting her easier. As Julia was dragged off, a _Scharführer_ entered and saluted. " _Heil Kranefuss!_ "  
  
Fassbinder returned the salute. "What is it, _Scharführer_?"  
  
" _Brigadeführer_ , long range sensors are detecting two of the three vessels that the _Dogger Bank_ reported from its battle. _Sturmbannführer_ Diekmann believes the third vessel, an attacker, is cloaked."  
  
"The _Koenig_ , undoubtedly," Fassbinder said. A thoughtful smile crossed his face. " _Scharführer_ , inform _Oberführer_ Krebsbach to commence the Phase 1 evacuation procedures, and make sure he knows that there is no urgency. He can take his time."  
  
" _Jawohl!_ "  
  
Fassbinder watched the soldier leave and allowed himself a small smile. Everything was proceeding exactly as he desired. Revenge and destiny were at hand.


	3. Chapter 3

Robert's efforts at meditation were not working out as he wanted. The anger would not fade, nor the temptations of the power within it. The pain in his head from his efforts to shield Julia, to protect her mind from whatever device or being was attacking it, was making it harder to focus. And with the pain he sensed her in, pain he could only partially absorb for her, a deep, desperate need to get to her side _now_ filled him, in defiance of all other considerations.  
  
With that desperate need came the dark thoughts again. Against Fassbinder and his troops, and his Cylon allies, they would need a lot of power to prevail. Even now he felt the sense that Fassbinder was preparing for them. A trap was being laid, a trap that they had no choice but to spring if they were to get Julia back. To deal with all of that, he needed to be at his best. He needed the power to break them down and…  
  
He cried out in frustration, at the situation and himself. He _knew_ what that power was, why he should never touch it. How corrupting it was. He thought of how he'd described it to Zara Tam and Husn Maina and the other Psi Corps children on Tau Atrea, about how corruptive and toxic it was to the spirit. What good would it do for Julia if he stopped being who he was? How much would he hurt her and the others if he abandoned what they believed in?  
  
Again a small treacherous voice, laced with fear and need, whispered in his being as the sensation of electrical shock gnawed at him. _That harm is nothing compared to what she suffers now._  
  
Slowly he realized the door chime was going off, repeatedly and insistently. His first impression was that Meridina was coming back to scold him, or otherwise try to deal with him. Maybe even to put him to sleep, to save him from these dark thoughts before they tempted him over a line he couldn't return from. But after a moment he could sense it wasn't her. It was another.  
  
The door slid open without him authorizing it. Robert looked up, surprise and some anger on his expression, and he watched Leo walk in, wearing his blue-trimmed medical uniform with a white lab coat over it. Leo's dark skin softly reflected the lighting of Robert's quarters. There was a hint of stubble on his chin. Robert could guess Leo was just finished dealing with the casualties from the _General Iroh_ that the _Aurora_ medbay was asked to handle.  
  
"I didn't actually invite you in," Robert pointed out.  
  
"No. But given my scan of your vitals showed elevated pain indicators, I consider my medical override justified," Leo said. He sat down on the simple couch beside where Robert was seated on the floor and looked down at his friend. His eyes reflected what Robert sensed in Leo's being: compassion, worry, the need to heal that was integral to Leo's heart and soul. "Everyone's worried about you."  
  
"So this is the first step in an intervention?" Robert asked.  
  
"More like I'm the only one who's not busy with something related to getting Julia back," Leo answered. "So it falls on me to help you."  
  
Robert said nothing. A grimace came to his face as he felt the pain escalate.  
  
"Well, that's something I never thought I'd see," Leo said, glancing at his medical omnitool's scan display. "Your body's showing signs of responding to, I don't know, some kind of electrical discharge." A sour look came to his face. "It's how they're torturing her, I guess?"  
  
"Yeah," answered Robert, his voice hollow. "It is."  
  
Leo took in a breath and nodded. "Yeah. I've seen the results of SS handiwork before." He leaned over in the seat and pressed a hand to Robert's shoulder. "It's bad enough that you're already in torment from the worry over her. Having to feel that, to know for certain how they're treating her…"  
  
"It's not just that. I'm… I'm using our connection to shield her," he said. "To try and alleviate the pain." His fists clenched. The charge was being increased on the other end, and through his connection Robert was feeling it acutely. He groaned lowly before continuing. "I owe it to her to help her, Leo. I'm the reason she's there," Robert said. "I could've gone to her on New Liberty. I could've helped her get away."  
  
"And left Beth to die instead?"  
  
"She wouldn't have. Colin and Max would've saved her, just as they did with me there," Robert said.  
  
"Are you so sure of that?" Leo asked patiently, keeping a nervous eye on Robert's vitals. He didn't pretend to understand this metaphysical stuff, but everything on his instruments told him Robert was being subjected to painful electrical shock. "Fassbinder's people probably kept in contact with him. And I know your metaphysical abilities let you sense each other. If he'd sensed you going after her instead of coming to him, do you really think he'd have waited that long?"  
  
Leo's question brought silence from Robert. He thought the answer over and found only a vexing uncertainty.  
  
"Rob, Julia knows how to take care of herself. Beth, well, she does to an extent as well, but you knew she needed that help. That without you coming, she would have died. Julia had a chance to get away. It didn't work out for her. But that's not your fault."  
  
"I've had dreams for two years," Robert said. "Dreams of New Liberty burning. Of Julia being held as a prisoner. I… I had them the night before we launched the 33LA mission, Leo. The mistake I made… this wouldn't have happened if I…"  
  
"That's all the past. Might-have-beens. I have them myself, you know."  
  
Robert nodded, sensing in Leo the memory of a frail, leukemia-stricken boy of barely ten years of age. "Joshua Marik."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"But it's not just a might-have-been. I should have realized something was wrong," Robert insisted. "I should have seen this coming!"  
  
"And you think that your dreams would be proof enough to get the Alliance to mobilize?" Leo asked. "You really think even Maran could force that through?"  
  
Robert shook his head. He winced again from the pain sensations filling him.  
  
"Listen, I get it," Leo continued. "This… this power you've got. It makes you feel responsible. Makes you think there's something more you could, you _should_ , do. But you're still just Human, Rob. There are some things you can't see coming. Things you can't stop. And dwelling over it, that's not going to help Julia, man."  
  
Leo was right. Of course he was. Robert knew it, he accepted it, but it didn't change the hurt. Not just the torture he sensed and tried to divert, but the hurt inside. The fear. "I can't lose her," he said. "God help me, I can't. She's… she's been a part of my life, a part of me, I can't lose her too." As he spoke he felt the pain recede. He breathed out in relief and wiped at the sweat coating his forehead and face.  
  
"Your vitals are improving," Leo said. "The pain indicators are gone. They stopped."  
  
"For now." Robert swallowed. "Whatever happens, Leo, we have to save her. I don't think I can endure it if she..."  
  
"We'll get that shot," Leo assured him, his answer keeping Robert from considering the alternative. "Just get your head straight first. She can't lose you either, you know."  
  
Robert's reaction was a laugh choked by a sniffle. "Leo, I love her."  
  
"On the 'No Duh' scale, that's an 11 out of 10," Leo responded. "I always find it funny that the two of you seem determined _not_ to hook up."  
  
"We don't want romance to interfere," Robert replied. "All of the emotions that come from it."  
  
"I think I get it." Leo nodded and clapped him on the shoulder.  
  
"I'm scared. Oh God, I'm scared. For her. For what Fassbinder's doing to her. He's killing her inch by inch, drawing it out just to make her suffer."  
  
"That's the kind of man he is, for lack of a better term," said Leo.  
  
"What if he takes her away before we get there?" Robert asked openly. "What… what if he kills her instead of letting us rescue her…?"  
  
"What if he doesn't, and we get her back safe and sound?" Leo shook his head. "Don't let it beat you up on the inside, Rob. Just do what you can, and we'll do the same, and God willing, Julia'll be back in her ready office clucking away like the mother hen she is."  
  
Despite everything, Robert chuckled at that. Tears still flowed down his face. "Yeah. She does have to be the mother hen. Look out for us."  
  
"We look out for each other. It's how it's always been."  
  
As Robert nodded in wordless reply, Leo's words soothed his spirit. He felt the fear and attendant anger recede away gently, replaced by a cautious confidence. With it went the temptation to tap the dark power within that anger. "Thanks, Leo," he said quietly. "For looking out for me."  
  
"You're welcome," Leo replied. "Now, as your physician, I recommend you get a hearty meal from the Lookout. Whatever this is you're doing to help Julia, your body needs the calories to keep it up."  
  
  
  
  
  
Upon return to her cell, a return she knew would likely be short, Julia laid still on the ground, looking into the opposite cell. Miko sat up and looked at her, despair in the young woman's face. Fatigue set in and Julia's brain, desperately in need of sleep, pulled her into that sleep.  
  
It didn't last, not with the way she felt. When Julia opened her eyes again, Miko was no longer facing her, but rather facing to the side, sitting in a meditative pose like before with her eyes closed and a concentrated look on her face.  
  
Before Julia could speak, blue light formed around Miko. It formed from her, like a fog, and flowed away. A short distance from her it coalesced into a human figure, seated similarly to Miko with legs folded. This time it was a woman with dark brown skin and brown hair. She was in a sleeveless suit of light blue color with white trim lines, a brown animal skin wrapped around the waist of a pair of baggy blue trousers. Blue eyes focused on Miko on the face of someone just on the cusp of middle age, not old, but with the energy of youth tempered by years of hard-earned experience. With her skin color, and the thick muscle of her bared arms, the woman reminded Julia of Angel. There was a gentle softness in the voice that spoke. "Hello, Miko."  
  
"Avatar Korra," said Miko. Her eyes opened. "I… I need your advice."  
  
"Of course." The holographic figure nodded.  
  
"I've talked to Avatar Komin, and he was helpful, but you… you've actually faced this too," Miko said. Her voice cracked and tears formed in her eyes. "I've been taken prisoner. They've made it so I can't bend without hurting myself, and… and I don't know what's going to happen." Miko sniffled. "And… and they've hurt me… and I'm scared. I'm scared I won't be strong enough to get away. I won't see my family and friends again."  
  
The image nodded. "I know what that's like," said Korra. "It's okay to be scared."  
  
"But… but how do I fight it?" Miko asked, almost pleading. "I've never been so scared in my life, but if I'm going to get away, if I'm going to help our world fight this new enemy, I have to be stronger than this. I have to get away!"  
  
"Yes. And to do that, you have to accept your fear. Don't try to hold it down or avoid it. Face it, and then let it go. Do that, and you'll be ready to act when your time comes."  
  
"But without my bending…"  
  
Korra smiled thinly. "I've been there too. It's scary, I know. Without it, it makes you feel helpless. After all, it's part of who we are as the Avatar. When I thought I'd lost my bending, it felt like the whole world was ending." The look in her eyes hardened. "And while it was hard, I accepted it. It helped me, in the end. Your situation isn't the same as mine, but what hasn't changed is that bending doesn't actually make us what we are. It's something deeper than that. You can still fight back, Miko, and find a way out." The image's head turned toward her, and Julia got the sense that whatever this being was, she was not unnoticed. "For you and your friend."  
  
Miko glanced Julia's way. Noticing she was awake, Miko sighed with relief.  
  
"You're not alone in this, Miko," Korra continued. "You've got a friend here, and those who care about you will be coming to help you. Don't hold onto the fear. Face it and let it pass. Believe in yourself, pick your moment to strike, and you'll get home." The gentle smile returned. "Good luck to you both."  
  
The image dissipated back into fog, which thinned until there was nothing left.  
  
"What was that?" Julia asked. "Who?"  
  
"Avatar Korra," replied Miko. "My past life, two lifetimes ago."  
  
"So you really reincarnate…?"  
  
"Yes and no. It's… complicated. We're all bound together by Raava, a powerful Spirit of Light. When one Avatar dies, Raava joins with another in the next nation in the chain, and the connection links us to those past lives. But we're not the same individual each time. Each life is different."  
  
The entire idea was both strange and, in a true use of the word, wonderful. Julia found it astounding even considering all of the other strange and "out there" things she'd seen since the opening of the Multiverse.  
  
"I'm trying to be strong," said Miko. "But I still don't know how we'll get out of this. I can't bend, and with everything they've done to you, you can't even stand. How are we going to fight back?"  
  
"We'll make it work. Trust me on that," Julia urged. "Just be patient and wait for our moment."  
  
Miko almost asked what she meant, but held back at the familiar distant sound of approaching steps. She gave Julia a knowing look as the two guards returned. One opened Julia's cell and the other reached in to force her to her feet.  
  
A little flicker of anticipation built in Miko as she watched Julia's aquamarine eyes. While her face showed weariness and misery, her eyes were busy examining her guards. As Julia was carried off, Miko thought back and realized that was how Julia's eyes always seemed to look.  
  
And despite everything, that thought brought a small smile to Miko's face.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Everyone on the _Koenig_ was ready for action when Jean Hajar disengaged the attack ship's warp drives. From her station, newly-minted Lieutenant Commander Magda Navaez, the Colombian-born operations officer and First Officer of the ship, checked the sensor readings. "SS vessels are in orbit over the fourth planet of the solar system," she said aloud. "It looks like a garden world, Class E, just inside the outer limit of the habitable band."  
  
Zack nodded. "What else can you tell me?"  
  
"Not much from here. An exotic power signature indicates a settlement or base of some sort on the surface of the planet, northern hemisphere. I'm detecting transporter activity between the two."  
  
"What kind?" he asked.  
  
Magda checked and double-checked before answering, "Outgoing. Almost entirely outgoing."  
  
Zack gripped the arms of his chair tightly. "They're evacuating," he said.  
  
"It appears so."  
  
"Get the _Aurora_ on the tight-beam," he said. "They need to hear and see this."  
  
  
  
  
  
In the conference lounge of the _Aurora_ , everyone looked at the holo-image above the center of their table. The _Koenig_ 's systems actively relayed to them the sight of SS ships in orbit. _Innsbruck_ and _Calypso_ -class vessels were the only visible types.  
  
The same image, courtesy of the omnitools of Talara and Lucy, was also displayed on the vidmonitor in the wardroom of the _General Iroh_ , where Ursa and the _Iroh_ 's official commander, Captain Saizen, were seated with their officers and Komin Beifong. " _This energy trace you are seeing_ ," Ursa was saying. " _It is more of the teleportation technology?_ "  
  
"It is," Cat said. "Definite beaming activity. Not too heavy, but constant."  
  
" _And it's all going one way_ ," noted Zack over the line. " _They're evacuating._ "  
  
"Then we're out of time," Angel said. "We need to attack now."  
  
"Admiral Maran's response fleet has yet to completely gather," Meridina said. "He requires another ten hours, minimum."  
  
" _We don't have ten hours_ ," Zack insisted. " _We may not even have ten minutes! If we're getting Julia back, we have to strike_ now."  
  
"We do have some time," Robert murmured, his face pale and flushed. Sweat glistened on his brow and he looked very much distracted.  
  
"How do… right." Cat stopped herself and swallowed. "They're… torturing her?"  
  
Robert nodded quietly. "Yeah. I can feel it, and I'm shielding her from it as much as I can. Fassbinder's not pulling out right now if he's busy hurting her."  
  
The others gave him looks that ranged from incredulous to worried. The same went for their new allies.  
  
" _I don't think he's taken Miko either. I don't feel like he has_ ," Lucy added. " _We still have some time._ "  
  
"This feels like a trap," Locarno said. "They have to know we're coming. Maybe we should wait for reinforcements."  
  
Robert and Lucy nodded in agreement. Lucy said, " _It's definitely a trap._ "  
  
" _We have not heard from Yeshe yet about whether she's gotten help_ ," Komin said. " _So we can't promise any_."  
  
"Maran may not agree to committing what he has without knowing the extent of the enemy force," Meridina said.  
  
"What if we were to send in the _Jayhawk_ and _Gonzales_?" asked Major Anders. "Use Marine teams to infiltrate and sabotage their base and retrieve the prisoners."  
  
" _We don't know what kind of systems they may have monitoring the planet_ ," Lucy said. " _If they pick up either or both ships trying to slip into the atmosphere, we'll be sitting ducks without the big ships to cover us. And we have to enter the system anyway, the_ Jayhawk _'s warp drive is still offline due to our damage at Toutaine._ "  
  
"Not that it would matter. They have to see us on their long range sensors by now, so if we stop outside of the system they'll suspect we're sending in insertion teams," Jarod added.  
  
"So let's spring the trap first," Robert suggested, distracted as he was. "Then when we can see what they've got in reserve, we call in reinforcements or withdraw if they're too much for what Maran has ready."  
  
" _And if their forces are too strong for the reinforcements you would summon?_ " asked Ursa. " _The enemy's evacuation could be accelerated after we withdrew_. _They will take your friend and my daughter..._ "  
  
"That's why we use the arrival and withdrawal to sneak the teams in," Robert said. His voice was hoarse from effort, a wince almost permanent on his face. "While their attention is diverted to the _Aurora_ and _General Iroh_."  
  
" _I will be joining you_ ," Ursa said. " _Captain Saizen will command the_ Iroh _._ "  
  
"Of course," Robert said. "We'll go in with our best. Myself, you, Lucy, Gina" - he glanced to her, Gina nodding in acknowledgement from her corner seat - "Talara, Komin, Yeshe if she's awake, and one of Major Anders' Marine platoons. If you want some of your Marines too, we'll bring them along."  
  
" _What do you suggest, we beam straight to the secondary shuttle bay upon arrival?_ " Lucy asked.  
  
"Exactly. We take both ships in and we get our people out. Anders, your platoon will cover our mission by going for their command center. There could be valuable intel we could gain if we take control of their systems."  
  
"Understood," said Anders.  
  
"We have a plan," Meridina noted. "Let us enact it, and trust in the Light to aid us."  
  
  
  
  
After everyone was gone, Robert and Meridina were left alone. She gave him a sympathetic look. "I am reminded of our mission to the DMZ, in the hunt for the _Mayala_."  
  
Robert nodded. "When you sensed the torturing of those Maquis by Gul Evek and his Obsidian Order lackey."  
  
"And you offered to link minds with me. To share my discomfort."  
  
"And we ended up broadcasting it across this ship and to the _Enterprise_."  
  
"Yes." Meridina nodded. "It was then that I knew what you could be. And now here you are, sensing the pain and suffering just as I did, and trying to alleviate it."  
  
Robert nodded. Inside he felt pain in his head. Much of his attention was diverted to Julia, to maintaining the construct around her mind to shield it. But he had enough presence of thought to say, "I'm sorry for the harsh things I said earlier. I know this can't be easy on you. Having to focus on duty and not giving time for your grief. I'm so sorry about Gersal."  
  
"Thank you." Meridina nodded gently. "Although your words were harsh, they were not untrue. I was not facing my feelings."  
  
"I've been letting myself stew in mine, and in the darkness of it all." Robert shook his head. "I… I could feel myself slipping to that. A little voice in my head telling me that I needed to wield those dark powers if I was going to save Julia. I still feel it a bit. It's so easy with that power."  
  
"Indeed. Which is why we must never use it. It is too easy. And it does nothing but destroy."  
  
"Yeah. I'll hold it back. For Julie's sake as much as my own. She'd… never accept me if I turned into someone or something like that."  
  
Meridina nodded in acknowledgement and agreement. "I am hopeful of her recovery. Being a captain of a vessel is not a thing I have ever considered as an outcome for my life. I am not certain I wish it. Truthfully, there are times I would prefer being Chief of Security. The role is closer to what I wish to do."  
  
"And you miss being on the away missions," Robert noted. He inclined his head toward her. "I'm not surprised." His left hand went to his forehead unconsciously, as if to banish the pain he felt there from his shielding of Julia. "I miss it. Sometimes," he admitted to Meridina. "Being Captain, I mean. But this was what Julia was meant to do this entire time. She probably should've been the Captain of the _Aurora_ from the first day."  
  
"She is quite capable. Among our many personal reasons, this makes it vitally important that we rescue her."  
  
"That's the plan." Robert checked the time. "I have things to get done before we launch. It's going to be hard enough with…" The wince on his face finished that thought for him.  
  
"Of course," said Meridina.  
  
"And I've got a stop first, something that I need done before we leave."  
  
Meridina wondered just what he meant. Then she picked up on the thought with his intention and smiled gently in recognition. "Yes, of course. Let me know if you need assistance."  
  
"I will."  
  
  
  
  
Once again in the Aurora Chair, Julia felt her mind slip deep into memories, the pain sloughing away and becoming, for lack of a better term, bearable. She was back on the _Aurora_ in the first months of their time on the ship, before encountering the Nazis' home universe, before all of this started.  
  
Those memories led her further on to before the war.. To the day they saved the _Tikvah_. She was in the ready room office beside the bridge, still just the First Officer, arguing with Robert for his dangerous decision to risk the ship to save everyone. She told him to save the ship even if it meant leaving her behind.  
  
_"If that day ever comes, Robby... if you ever have to leave me behind to save everyone else, and the bad guys take me and... start hurting me." She swallowed and closed her eyes. "I want you to forgive yourself."  
  
"I won't be able to.".  
  
"Let me finish. Forgive yourself. Focus on your job. Because I won't give them a thing. And no matter what they do to me, I'll know one thing." Julia pulled him into a hug and talked directly into his ear. "I'll know you're coming for me, okay? That you're going to save me. Just as I'd save you. Because we'd all do that for each other."_  
  
Although in her state she didn't see or hear it, the conversation played out over the chair's viewer. Fassbinder observed with mounting frustration. He thought he could sense something in her, something shielding her mind from the pain and the machine itself. This aggravation was infuriating.  
  
That same feeling prompted him to have the chair shut down again. He leaned in and frowned into Julia's aquamarine eyes. "You believe he is coming for you? That he will get to you and bring you away from this place? I look forward, then, to showing you his final moments. To destroying him and everyone else you love. _And I will make you watch_."  
  
For a brief moment Julia considered taunting him. But she reconsidered. This eventuality was why Maran sent them for training back in the time before the Alliance finished forming. Engaging with her captor would violate that training. "Andreys, Julia Megan," she said. "Captain. Serial Number…" She stopped speaking when Fassbinder's hand smacked her on the mouth. Once his hand was away, she continued, "Bravo Zero Zero Zero Three One Zero One Hotel One Echo Four."  
  
Fassbinder scowled at her. He recognized her defiance for what it was, pitting their wills against one another's, and he was not about to accept defeat on the matter.  
  
"When your friends are here, I will bring you here to watch them die, and enjoy the torment that will bring." He looked to her guards. "Return her to the cell!"  
  
The guards took her away. Julia said nothing, gave no resistance, as she was again taken back to the cells. When they arrived her eyes remained on them.  
  
One of the guards responded by punching her in the stomach. Julia went down with a groan, doubling over until the two threw her into her cell. They exchanged remarks in German while stomping away, leaving Julia and Miko alone again.  
  
Miko glared at them as they went. When they were gone, she looked across to where Julia was laying on the ground. "Are you okay?" she asked, more out of habit than expecting any positive answer.  
  
Julia looked up at her. A satisfied smile came to her face. "Better," she said. "Be ready."  
  
Miko almost asked what for, but the look on Julia's face was answer enough to that.


	4. Chapter 4

With their arrival imminent, the crews of the _Aurora_ and _General Iroh_ returned to their combat stations. Both crews knew the stakes and were ready for the risks involved.  
  
On the bridge, Meridina nodded to Jarod, who tapped at the station beside him. "Tac comm established.  
  
"Captain Saizen?" Meridina asked aloud.  
  
" _We are receiving you, Captain Meridina_ ," replied the Fire Nation officer. " _The tactical communication link is secure._ "  
  
"Then we are as ready as we can be," she said.  
  
" _Our people are ready for your teleport systems to bring them to your ship_."  
  
"The transport will commence when we drop from warp."  
  
  
  
  
Lucy and Talara arrived in one of the _General Iroh_ 's storage bays for their transport out with the others. Ursa was present with several of what Lucy took to be her ship's Marines, wearing the same combat uniform as they did. The combat uniform was red with gold trim, with a helmet of the same coloring that looked like someone took a samurai helmet and molded it down to work like a motorcycle helmet.  
  
Yeshe was wearing a suit of lighter red with yellow striping, sections of darker red crossing over her chest and ending at the shoulder blades. From what she saw, it looked like they were held in place by velcro strips.  
  
Komin was in a dark green, beige-tinged uniform. The shoulders had what looked like epaulets fashioned from metal plates, similar plates ringing his belt. A disc with metal wire coiled around it hung from the belt at each hip.  
  
"Any luck with calling reinforcements?" Lucy asked.  
  
"I was able to contact Master Gyatsun," Yeshe confirmed. "He assured me that he would call the United Forces immediately and relay the star coordinates your people provided. But he is unaware of where Admiral Hanraq's forces are right now."  
  
"We shall have to hope he is not far." Ursa nodded to Lucy. "We are ready for your 'transport' Lieutenant Lucero."  
  
"It won't be hard at all, I promise," Lucy said. "Think of it as something like a water slide. You're being shot down a slide through subspace."  
  
The look on Ursa's face, and on several of her subordinates, told Lucy that didn't help.  
  
" _Dropping out of warp now_ ," Jarod's voice said over the line. " _Beaming_."  
  
In a group everyone in the bay was pulled away by the _Aurora_ transporters. They arrived in the secondary shuttle bay of the _Aurora_ , built into the stern of Deck 34 to facilitate the Marines on the ship. The insertion runabout _Gonzales_ and Robert's infiltrator, the _Jayhawk_ , were lined up and ready for launch. Komin took the longest to recover his bearings after the transport.  
  
Robert and Gina were waiting at the rear cargo door of the _Jayhawk_. "Your team should fit in my ship," he said to Ursa. "We should get moving."  
  
It seemed to take him a moment to recognize Lucy was staring at him. When he did, Robert grinned slightly at her and, perhaps for effect, ran a hand over his shaven, hairless chin. His hair was cut back down to what it had been before he left for Umintamil, combed into place.  
  
"So, not the monk look anymore," Lucy said. "Why did… oh. I see."  
  
"It's as good a time as any," he replied. Around him the Fire Nation marines piled into the _Jayhawk_ armory ramp to join the _Aurora_ Marines already aboard.  
  
"And it will make Julia very happy," Lucy observed. "Let's go show her."  
  
They filed onto the ship and went for the cockpit, where Lucy - as usual - took up the helm. With the pre-flight checks already done by Gina, now sitting at Ops, Lucy went right to launching. The _Gonzalez_ left first, wavering out of sight as she did. The _Jayhawk_ 's engines fired and she too emerged from the bay, cloaking as she did. Invisible to sensors and the naked eye, the two vessels turned about their mother ship and made a full-impulsor beeline for the enemy-held planet. The _Aurora_ and _General Iroh_ followed, deliberately drawing attention as they moved ahead, as if daring the SS exiles to react.  
  
  
  
  
In the command room at the top of the central tower of the alien structure, Fassbinder stood beside _Sturmbannführer_ Deikmann's station. The advanced sensors of the city displayed the new arrivals to the system on the viewscreen built into the wall. "There are no other vessels on sensors, _Brigadeführer_ ," Diekmann said.  
  
"Then it is as I thought. They came alone. All ships remain on standby." Fassbinder grinned widely and glanced toward another of his men. "And have the Alliance prisoner brought to me. I want her to see this."  
  
" _Jawohl_!"  
  
" _Standartenführer_ , the device, is it ready?"  
  
Another of the officers stood at a different control interface. He faced Fassbinder and nodded. "Ready for activation."  
  
"Good. Do so."  
  
  
  
  
The familiar sound of the guards' boots stomping on the ground drew Julia's attention, as it did Miko's. She looked up from where she was sprawled out on the floor of the cell in time to see the two SS men appear in the door. "Come, Alliancer," one of them said. "It's time for you to watch your friends die."  
  
She scowled at him as the forcefield dropped. The speaking guard entered. He reached down and grabbed her arm. "Come!" he repeated, his grip bruising in its strength. He forced her to get up, first on her knees, and then to her feet.  
  
Julia's arm snapped forward without warning, her flat hand slamming into the guard's throat in a chopping motion right at the vulnerable Adam's apple. The SS guard's eyes widened in shock and pain as the breath was caught in his throat by the blow, causing him to falter.  
  
His compatriot took a second for training to overwhelm shock at his captive suddenly lashing out despite her apparent helplessness. That second allowed Julia to pull free the first guard's stun stick. With every ounce of strength and will she had, Julia forced her body to move fast enough to dodge the second guard's strike at her, barely succeeding. Her appropriated weapon came up and struck the guard in his unprotected throat and neck, sending a stun shock into him that brought him down. For good measure Julia used the stick on its former owner as well, rendering the wheezing guard unconscious. She reached down and yanked the object she'd spied earlier, a flat device with a pair of prongs at the end, from his belt.  
  
Miko watched the entire thing in stunned amazement. "How… how can you move?"  
  
Julia shook her head, a signal she couldn't talk. And she couldn't. Just that spurt of activity took almost everything she had. Grabbing the second guard, stun-sticking him again, and pulling him to the door took the last of it. The mere act of moving was bringing forth screaming protest from her abused body, demanding every iota of willpower Julia had in her to not just move, but to pull the dead weight of her guard with her. Once she had the unconscious guard close enough, Julia brought the guard's hand up to the control for Miko's cell, ensuring any biometric security for the controls would be bypassed. The field confining Miko dropped and so did Julia, toppling to her side in Miko's cell, her strength spent. She feebly offered to Miko the device she'd pulled from the guards. "For your collar," she said hoarsely.  
  
Miko nodded and took the device in question. She remembered when it was first attached to her and lined up the prongs to her collar. It took her several moments to line them up right, given the port was on her neck and out of sight, moments in which Julia slowly turned and crawled back to the guard she'd used to open Miko's cell. Julia's hand sought out the guard's belt until she felt the shape of a cylinder there and pulled it loose. But that was all she could do. With all of her suffering, not to mention the bare necessity of nutrients Fassbinder allowed her through injections, Julia's body simply could not go on.  
  
There was a loud beep and a clicking sound. The collar around Miko's throat fell free, baring lightened skin there to show how long it'd been on her. She knelt down beside Julia. "Take it," Julia said, her voice strained and raw. Her eyes glanced toward the syringe in her hand. "One for you, one for me. It'll give you the energy you need to fight."  
  
"And you?"  
  
Had she the strength, Julia would've shaken her head. "It should give me what I need to move. But I won't be much good in a fight."  
  
"I'll do the fighting," Miko promised. "Where do I…?"  
  
With effort Julia forced her hand to move again, this time tapping her wrist and the veins there. Miko pressed the syringe there and triggered the device, sending the combat drug cocktail into Julia's body. She went for the syringe on the other guard and did the same to her own wrist.  
  
It didn't take long for them to feel the effects. Julia felt the weakness in her body fade. It wasn't gone, simply hidden under the chemical effects of the drug. When it faded she'd be even worse off. With it working, she rose to her feet, taking the time to pull away the pistol holster. She considered the rifle before dismissing the idea; in her state it might be a little too much to carry.  
  
Miko felt an euphoria fill her, tinged with a need for aggression. Weeks of frustration and terror fueled a fury she was ready to unleash on her long-time captors. She noticed Julia wobble a little on her feet. "If you need to, go on without me," Julia said.  
  
"No, _never_ ," Miko replied, her voice fierce. "I'm not abandoning you to what they're doing to you, will do to you. We both get out." She put an arm under Julia's right shoulder to help stabilize her. "Can you fly us out if we find one of their ships?"  
  
"I don't think we'll need that," Julia replied, her voice no less hoarse than before. "My friends, my ship, are here. They'll send a rescue team for us. But we have to stop whatever trap Fassbinder's laying for them."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Let's see if we can find the power plant."  
  
"Right," Miko agreed, bringing Jula alone. With grim determination on their faces, the two continued their escape.  
  
  
  
  
  
The final approach to the planet was done in tense quiet. The _Aurora_ and _General Iroh_ approached openly, their sublight drives at standard acceleration, while the _Koenig_ moved in under cloak ahead of the two smaller insertion ships. Tight-beam communications allowed the cloaked vessels to remain in contact with each other on their approach.  
  
The enemy ships in orbit, being lighter vessels, withdrew to the other side of the planet as the big ships entered weapons range. On the bridge of the _Aurora_ Meridina and Jarod exchanged skeptical looks. Their gifts, different as they were, led both to the same easy conclusion: a trap was laid for them. A trap they had to spring to cover the rescue party. "Maintain standby on jump drives," Meridina ordered in a quiet voice.  
  
"Aye Captain," Tra'dur responded.  
  
Ahead of them, the rescue ships made atmospheric entry. While Lucy flew the _Jayhawk_ , Gina observed the sensor returns and displayed them for Robert and the others. The one artificial structure on the planet, the obvious location of the enemy base, was a great tower surrounded by five groups of buildings. "They have a theater shield raised. I'm looking for weak points… wait." Gina checked another screen. "Ships dropping out of warp."  
  
"How many?" asked Robert.  
  
"Nearly two dozen," Gina answered.  
  
  
  
  
The same was noted on the _Aurora_ bridge. With the ship already at battlestations no further order needed to be given to prepare for what looked a hopeless fight. The two dozen enemy ships was weighted toward lighter vessels, but with a large _Lutzow_ -class battlecruiser and several heavy cruisers of the _Sedan_ and _Tannenburg_ -classes present, the _Aurora_ and _General Iroh_ were plainly outnumbered.  
  
"Incoming hail from the planet," Tra'dur informed them.  
  
Since every moment bought gave the rescue team more time, Meridina nodded. "On screen."  
  
A chill went through Meridina at the sight of Erik Fassbinder. He and those with him were of a kind - all blond-haired blue-eyed men, all of refined physique brought about by centuries of genetic engineering - with the exception that Fassbinder's blue eyes were now the golden yellow color of a sensitive given over to darkness. His malevolent eyes glinted with satisfaction. " _Ah, the_ untermensch _Knight_ ," he said. " _I invite you to surrender, Gersallian. You and your vessel are outmatched._ "  
  
"We will not," she replied simply. "We know too well the fate of those in your mercies, _swevyra'kse_."  
  
" _Good. I was hoping you would resist. I look forward to showing Captain Andreys your final moments. It should break her spirit quite thoroughly. All vessels engage!_ "  
  
The moment he disappeared, Jarod grinned slightly. "He fell for it. I knew he'd tip his hand."  
  
"Signal Command," Meridina instructed. "Inform them we have found a major SS concentration and request immediate reinforcement."  
  
"Transmitting… Captain, IU comms are not responding."  
  
Cat was quick to explain. "There's some kind of interference pattern coming from the planet. I've… I've never seen anything like it."  
  
"Is it why our comms aren't working?" Jarod asked.  
  
"Likely. The signature acts like a dimensional stabilizer, given the strength of it, it will prevent interuniversal communications or jump drives from functioning in its area of effect."  
  
"And the size of that area?" asked Jarod.  
  
"Most of the solar system, at least," replied Cat.  
  
At that point the ship shook as the enemy's first shots struck them. "Evasive maneuvers," Meridina ordered. "Prepare for warp on my mark."  
  
"I wouldn't recommend that," Locarno said. "They've got us boxed in. A warp-speed collision is likely."  
  
"Then we fight," Meridina said. "Engage at will. Call Commander Carrey into the battle as well."  
  
"Aye Captain," Tra'dur responded, keeping any nervousness about their dangerous situation to herself.  
  
Moments later the _Koenig_ made its entry into the battle, its pulse phasers blazing and wrecking the lead destroyer of a formation approaching the _Aurora_ on a torpedo run. The rest of the destroyers broke away, firing their torpedoes early, and the _Koenig_ immediately came under fire from a nearby _Dresden_ -class cruiser.  
  
And so the battle began.  
  
  
  
  
While the battle above raged, the cloaked ships approached the SS-held facility, or rather the deflector dome protecting it. Gina and the others looked over the area carefully. "The dome is solid," she noted. "And I haven't found an approach that we can fit through. The river is too shallow and narrow."  
  
"What if we vaporized a tunnel through the north ridgeline?" Robert suggested.  
  
"I doubt our weapons are precise enough to make a working tunnel there," Lucy said. "It'll collapse, and the deflector dome will expand to cover the space."  
  
"I can make you a tunnel," said Komin.  
  
The others turned to face him. Even his cousin and Ursa. "Komin, have you ever moved that much earth?" Yeshe asked, a hint of concern in her otherwise calm voice.  
  
"No. But I know I can do it."  
  
Robert and the others sensed Komin's resolve. A tiny sliver of doubt was inside of it, but he kept that doubt suppressed with the weight of his determination to rescue his future student. "Bring us over," Robert said to Lucy. "Present the rear of the ship toward the ridge." He nodded at Komin next. "Come with me."  
  
Komin followed Robert back down the corridor to the armory, where the squads of Ursa's hand-picked troops were waiting. Robert grabbed a cable from one part of the armory and latched it on to a ring beside the cargo bay door. His hand reached up and smacked the controls, causing the ramp to swing down, revealing the beige-tinted wall of rock ahead of them. He wrapped the cable around Komin's waist to secure him before nodding. "Alright. Do what you can."  
  
Komin nodded and took in a breath before turning his attention to the ridge. He shifted his legs, assuming a solid stance, and raised his arms up. He made a spreading motion with both arms.  
  
The rocky surface of the ridge shifted outward, as if it were a portal opening, and the rock beneath did the same. Each second more and more of the raw earth separated. Sweat dripped down Komin's brow as he continued exerting his will on the stone, prompting Robert to put a hand on his shoulder and reach through the Flow of Life into him. Komin was setting a personal record with this, and it took everything he had. Robert tried to help by applying his own life energy to reinforce Komin's.  
  
Beyond light and air started to show through the opened hole through the ridgeline, with a tunnel at least fifty meters in diameter now present.  
  
Komin went down to a knee, sweat coating his face and caking his dark hair. Robert helped him back in, closing the cargo door as he did, and pulled an energy drink from a container of the same. He offered it to Komin, who started drinking from it. He made a disgusted face. "Ugh, what is this stuff?"  
  
"Energy drink with… hell if I know the flavor."  
  
He took another swig and shook his head, the expression on his face intensifying. "I think it's helping but whoever made it has no sense of taste."  
  
Robert chuckled despite the situation. "Tell me about it."  
  
Lucy's voice broke into the conversation. " _Alright everyone, we're through the tunnel and inside the deflector shield. But it looks like they know we're coming. This is going to be a hot landing._ "  
  
Robert responded by activating his omnitool. "Land the ship and join us, Lucy. We're all going in." A determined look crossed his face. "Let's go get our loved ones back."  
  
  
  
  
Julia and Miko didn't make it far before running into a patrol of SS troops. She brought her stolen pistol up to open fire on them.  
  
She never got a chance to pull the trigger.  
  
Miko exploded forward with the kind of eager aggressiveness Julia usually saw in Angel when she was spoiling for a fight. She jumped up to the wall and kicked off of it, bringing her leg up to make a sweeping kick in the air. Her foot hit nothing, but the wave of flame she generated with the move slammed into the four guards, throwing them all back before they could raise weapons. Two recovered by rolling with the hit. As their weapons came up Miko spiraled on one foot before thrusting her fist forward. A gust of tornado-strength wind slammed into the guards and sent them flying into the wall with enough force to take the fight out of them.  
  
Miko turned to check on Julia, who watched with approval at her partner's swift takedown of their opponents. "And I thought I was used to seeing impossible things," Julia said.  
  
That brought a smile to the younger woman. "Let's keep going!" Miko urged. After her time in captivity, the chance to strike at her captors was invigorating, cathartic.  
  
Julia nodded in reply and glanced around. There was still no immediate signs of where anything was in the complex. She doubted the guards' data devices would provide much help on that score either, given the ease of biometric-based security, so she sought out her memories of being taken through the complex. "This way," she said, eyeing one of the paths available.  
  
  
  
  
As the two infiltration craft approached the SS base, it was clear that the enemy had some idea that they were coming, with their troops active at all levels. On the _Jayhawk_ Robert spoke into his omnitool. "Major, you start at the top of the tower. See if you can find and take whatever they're using for a central command center. We'll land at ground level and look for the prisoners."  
  
" _Confirmed, Captain. Bring our people home._ "  
  
"Happy hunting. Dale out."  
  
"Bringing us in low," Lucy said. "They still haven't detected us, but the closer we get… woh!" The ship shifted under their feet. "Never mind, they have an idea where we are. Decloaking and opening fire!"  
  
The _Jayhawk_ rippled into view just as a ground-based disruptor cannon sent an emerald disruptor beam sizzling through the air again, barely missing the infiltrator. At weapons Talara retaliated with the _Jayhawk_ 's forward-facing pulse plasma cannons. Bolts of sapphire light slammed into the ground-based cannon and wrecked it.  
  
Others came online and came under fire from the craft's pulse guns, while above the _Gonzales_ rippled into view and started disgorging Marines onto a balcony of the structure.  
  
Under Lucy's control, with Talara's firing, the _Jayhawk_ circled the structure, its main cannons and ventral-mounted pulse gun turrets wreaking havoc on the enemy's weapon emplacements. The return fire the _Jayhawk_ took did not lack for trying. Against another pilot, the infiltrator's deflectors would not have been enough against the volume and resulting successful strikes. But Lucy's skills gave her the means to evade the vast majority of the fire while Talara eliminated the guns.  
  
Once they finished clearing any weapon that could fire on the _Jayhawk_ or _Gonzales_ , Lucy brought the infiltrator in for a landing. The moment the ship hit the ground Robert turned to two of Anders' Marines, an Alakin male and sniper named Sergeant Ijala and a Dorei Marine of lower rank. "Sergeant Ijala, Private Heytam, stay with the ship, you'll be our cover fire for the extraction."  
  
"Lee, Ranjan, you will aid them," Ursa said to two of hers.  
  
Both sets of Marines affirmed their orders. Behind them, Lucy, Talara, and Gina arrived from the cockpit. Komin finished the last gulp of the energy drink provided him with a wince. Lucy noticed it and grinned. "Horrible stuff," she said. "I told him to get the fruit punch-flavored, not the generic."  
  
There was no time for Robert to reply to that before the bay door opened. Outside the _Jayhawk_ 's pulse guns were already firing away, suppressing some of the SS defenders behind cover. Robert, Lucy, and Gina went first, their lightsabers flashing to life and catching incoming enemy fire. Behind them Talara personally protected Ursa while she issued orders to her people. The Beifong cousins went to work disrupting enemy cover, Komin ripping the enemy's protective positions out from under their feet while Yeshe sent blasts of wind into, around, and through them. The Marines opened fire with their weapons, blue-white pulses and purple light striking down enemies deprived of their vital cover.  
  
Robert joined the efforts of the Beifongs while deflecting incoming fire. His will lashed out at the enemy, creating waves of invisible force that smashed their defensive positions.  
  
It was while they were working on this that he got the call from orbit. "Aurora _to landing party, we have a situation_ ," said Jarod.  
  
"Go ahead."  
  
" _We sprang their trap. But they have some kind of IU jammer up, it's keeping us from contacting the Alliance or jumping out. If we're going to get through this, we need that jammer down,_ now _."_  
  
Robert clenched his jaw at that. He wanted nothing more than to go to Julia immediately. To get her out of this nightmare. But he couldn't lose their home, her ship, in the process. And everything inside him told him he needed to see to that first. "Roger," he replied to Jarod. "Alright everyone, let's get this done."  
  
  
  
  
In the command center of the base, Fassbinder observed the developing combat in orbit with approval. His ships were arrayed in excellent formation to thwart any attempt at a warp-speed escape, and with the alien jamming device activated, he had the _Aurora_ precisely where he wanted it.  
  
"The second wave of ships is still en route," Diekmann informed him.  
  
"Tell them to come," Fassbinder said. The screens showed that the _Aurora_ 's shields, while holding, were already faltering from the sheer volume of fire she was taking. The ship's evasive maneuvers were excellent for a ship of its size and mass, more nimble than any Reich vessel of equivalent size ever managed. The Darglan technology of the _Aurora_ represented the edge that gave the Alliance its victory in the war. Fassbinder felt lingering irritation at the thought of how, if only that fool Lamper had been more Aryan, they might have taken this ship at the first contact, and its technological secrets put to the use of the Reich. Then they would have won the war, would have had a Multiverse to conquer…  
  
"They do not try to flee," he observed aloud. "They must believe their attack forces will remove the jammers." He turned his head and barked at another officer, "Status of our defenses!"  
  
"We have reinforcements moving to pin down the enemy that landed in the tower," replied the junior officer. "And others are in position to slow those who landed on the ground."  
  
Fassbinder nodded. He sensed the others even now, moving to intercept those attackers. His Cylon allies would have a chance to blood the other students against them. Now all he had to do was wait for the arrival of Julia Andreys and…  
  
" _Brigadeführer_ , we have a radiation spike," declared Diekmann. "More vessels are arriving."  
  
  
  
  
  
Cat noticed the new power signatures coming in later than she might have managed otherwise, given the active jamming of the battle. "Incoming contacts," she said while the _Aurora_ shook under them.  
  
"More SS ships?" asked Jarod.  
  
"No. The power signature isn't right. The signature's similar to the _General Iroh_ … they're dropping out of warp now."  
  
The vessels that appeared all bore some similarity to the _Iroh_ , with some differences of layout and coloration visible. Some were just a little larger than the _Koenig_ , others the size of the _Iroh_ , and one was a little larger than the _Aurora_ herself.  
  
In one great barrage the arriving ships opened fire on the nearest vessels of the SS formation. With their weapons fire concentrated on individual targets, the new arrivals quickly cut up one of the lighter cruisers and a destroyer of the SS fleet. The biggest ship was especially capable with the batteries of guns firing thick purple energy beams that were wearing down the shields of one of the newer _Tannenburg_ -class enemy cruisers.  
  
"General hail from the main ship," said Tra'dur.  
  
"Put them on," replied Meridina.  
  
While the holotank viewer beside Meridina and Jarod kept a tactical display up, the main holo-viewer screen shifted to form the image of a man with a dark bronze coloration. His uniform was red, with service ribbons visible on one breast of the jacket. His long brown hair, whitening at the temples and ends, was braided into a tail at the back of his head. " _This is General Hanraq of the United Forces, commanding from the_ Avatar Kiyoshi, _to vessels_ Aurora _and_ General Iroh _. Please respond._ "  
  
" _Captain Saizen here, General. Commanding on behalf of Captain Ursa. She is with the strike team to extract the prisoners._ "  
  
"General, this is Captain Meridina, acting commander of _Aurora_ ," said Meridina. "We are tying your ships into our tac comm channel. We will conform to your maneuvers and provide our knowledge of the enemy's capabilities."  
  
The man on the screen nodded. " _Thank you, Captain. Transmitting formation coordinates now._ "  
  
"Conform to them, Mister Locarno," said Meridina.  
  
"Aye ma'am," Locarno replied, while under his control the _Aurora_ shifted her position to join her new allies, her faltering shields relieved of some of the fire she was under.  
  
  
  
  
In the command center Fassbinder did not let the unexpected reinforcements cause any doubt. From experience the SS knew the locals to have somewhat inferior technology, with weaker weapons and deflectors. With equal numbers, they were not as great a threat. At least, without the _Aurora_ they weren't, but the Alliance vessel would tilt the balance if allowed.  
  
"Call in the second wave," he ordered. As he spoke, he felt a sense of developments that made him frown. "What do we have on the prisoners? Andreys should have been brought here by now."  
  
"Base Command to _Rottenführer_ Dietrich. Report status."  
  
At that moment Fassbinder felt a surge of vicious anger. He didn't need to wait for the lack of reply, he could already feel the truth, that his captives were on the loose. That he hadn't before he blamed for his focus on the arriving _Aurora_.   
  
"The second wave is coming in," Diekmann said. "Their arrival is soon…"  
  
"Keep me informed!" Fassbinder barked as he headed for the door.  
  
  
  
  
The space around the marginal garden planet was now the site of a furious combat between starships. Fassbinder's ships, by arraying themselves in a formation to encapsulate the _Aurora_ , made themselves vulnerable to a concentrated attack from another vector. General Hanraq's vessels exploited this to the fullest, concentrating their firepower on a handful of enemy vessels.  
  
In his command center Hanraq stood beside a plotting table. A bulky holo-projector system built into it provided a three-dimensional view of the battlespace. This was already shaping up to be one of the largest voidship battles of his career.  
  
The _Kiyoshi_ shook under his feet. "The largest of the enemy void cruisers is directing its firepower against us," one of the other officers reported.  
  
"Maintain formation," answered Captain Mushi, the ship's commander. "Direct all cannons on target."  
  
While the _Kiyoshi_ 's impressive array of energy cannons returned fire on the vessel, Hanraq noted the maneuvers of the newly-encountered friendly vessel _Aurora_. Although the ship was nearly the size of his own, it moved like a void cruiser half its size. Its own energy cannons blazed with pulses of sapphire light that pounded away at the enemy vessel's shields, disturbing their coherence. Projectiles of white-blue light slammed into the ruby field around the enemy ship next, making a partial breakthrough of the enemy deflectors.  
  
"General." Beside him, Engineering Captain Sen Yang observed the ship closely with her green eyes. "This unknown vessel's performance characteristics is superior to anything the raiders have shown before."  
  
"Yes," he agreed. "Which is to our advantage. If anything, the analysts who predicted the raiders were exiles of some sort may have been closer to the truth than previously imagined." His eyes narrowed. " _Jagala_ , _Senjo_ , maneuver to your down angle, give firing clearance to the _Zhu Li_." Satisfied that the two lighter ships were following his order, giving an easier firing field to the void cruiser _Zhu Li_ against one of their foes' ships, Hanraq glanced toward a readout of the planet. There was indeed an enemy facility there. _Good luck finding your daughter, Princess Ursa_ , he thought. _Things have been difficult enough for the Five Nations with these raids. I shudder to think of how things would go should we lose an Avatar so young…_  
  
He pushed that worry away, returning his focus to the battle at hand.  
  
  
  
  
The SS defensive forces were on the retreat from Robert and the others, allowing the group to access the structure itself. They entered the central tower along a path coming from one of the five groups of outlying buildings. One squad of troopers tried to hold the hall ahead of them. Lucy and Robert deflected their fire, giving Yeshe an opening to knock them off their feet with a strong gust of air. Her cousin's arms shot forward. Bands of metal left his belt and raced through the air until they reached the fallen soldiers, at which they wrapped around wrists and ankles, binding the SS troopers in place.  
  
Ursa and Robert took the lead in rushing further ahead. They led the others through a large sliding door that proved to lead to a barracks area. Metal-framed bunks in perfect lines filled the room, save a central area where tables were laid out. Opposite their side of the chamber was another large door leading deeper into the tower.  
  
The group barely had time to enter before that door opened. Through it stepped two figures in dark robes. Lucy, Gina, and Talara recognized their headbands as the same worn by the Cylon Inner Circle, and both female figures quickly reached for their lightsabers. Behind them men in dark suits with SS rank insignia and markings filed in. Some went for rifles or pistols, others for their own lightsaber weapons, which flashed to life with the same red color as the two Cylons' blades.  
  
Only as they approached was it clear which models of Cylon were present. Ursa and the others glanced toward Lucy and Gina.  
  
"They copied my DNA to use as a model," Lucy said, her voice brimming with anger at that fact. "And Gina was once one of their puppets before she turned against them."  
  
Her counterpart grinned in anticipation. "The traitor and two of the Dawn-Bearers. We look forward to striking you down."  
  
The fight only took seconds to break out, at which time the room exploded with the buzzing sound of lightsabers whizzing through the air. Lucy and Gina went after their Cylon counterparts. Robert and Talara eyed the students the moment before they charged, moving ahead through the lines of bunks.  
  
Komin was the first to strike. With a gesture of each arm, the bunks toppled over and fell on the approaching foes. Two got caught before the others caught on, jumping over said bunks, using their own abilities to stop their fall, or simply cleaving through them with lightsabers. Some were thrown back as Ursa and Yeshe joined the fight, sending bolts of flame and powerful air gusts at the attackers, acting as flank guards.  
  
Behind them came the sounds of battle. A Fire Nation Marine called out, "We will hold them, Highness!"  
  
"Very well." Ursa returned her focus to the fight ahead, while in the center of the room Lucy and Gina were already locked in a duel with their doppelgangers.  
  
  
  
  
The third SS patrol the two escapees ran into was the biggest, forcing Julia to open fire for the first time with her appropriated pistol. The shot went wide of the target but still sent him into cover, giving Miko an easier time as she tore through the others. She moved with purpose, every punch or kick generating flame and air that knocked around the SS. One brought up his rifle just to have flame superheat it in the man's hands, causing him to reflexively drop it, at which point Miko spun and kicked, creating a gust that tossed him on his back. She pivoted on her foot, evading an attempt to slam the back of her head with a rifle with the motion. Spinning around put her at the back of that foe. Flame erupted from the open palm she thrust at him, enveloping the SS trooper. A cry of surprise at his immolation was stifled by Miko's second blow, this time air that sent the trooper into the wall. He slumped.  
  
Julia's return fire worked to keep two of the foes in cover. When one popped up to fire on Miko she squeezed off a shot that connected this time, the emerald beam of her acquired weapon striking the soldier in the chest.  
  
The other SS trooper charged her. His gambit paid off; in her state Julia was too slow to bring the weapon over to bear on him. He slapped at her hand and knocked the pistol out of it. Pain filled Julia's hand from the force of the impact. She observed the next blow coming and let her training take over, moving to evade it.  
  
Under normal circumstances, Julia could have faced this foe in hand-to-hand with a better-than-fair chance at prevailing. But even with the combat drugs circulating through her body, she did not have the full range of her physical prowess available to her. She managed to dodge and redirect the first two strikes, but the third caught her squarely on the torso with enough force to take the breath from her and crack a rib. She doubled over in pain, allowing a second blow from the butt of the rifle to smash into her right cheek. Bone and flesh cracked under the force of the blow and Julia toppled.  
  
The SS trooper had no opportunity to take advantage of his victory. Miko caught him in the back with a powerful gust of wind that slammed him into the far wall. She gave him a strong punch, no elements this time, to put him down for the count. Once he was she went over to where Julia was struggling back to her feet. "Are you okay?" asked Miko.  
  
"Broken cheekbone," Julia said, wiping at the blood trickling from her mouth and nose. "I think. And a cracked rib. But other than that, nothing hurt but my pride."  
  
"I'll fight better next time," Miko vowed. "You shouldn't have to."  
  
"It's not like we have a choice." Julia drew in a breath. "Do you hear that?"  
  
There was conversation coming from one of the fallen troopers. They approached and knelt over. "The translator, I'm not sure it's working," said Miko.  
  
"Probably a security feature for their comms. I know a little German myself… they're relaying battle information. This place is under attack, there are Marines present."  
  
"My mother has come for me," Miko said, her voice cracking a little. "We should find them."  
  
"Wait…" Julia furrowed her brow. "I'm not catching everything. They're trying to hold out. To delay. Something about a jammer, and my ship's here…" She shook her head. Nothing else useful. But… "This jammer, it sounds pretty important. That's what we've got to take out."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Like I said, the power station. We cut their power, their jammer goes down. I think." She stood to her height and looked around. Her eyes narrowed at a far wall, just around a corner. She stumbled over to it. "Here. This means power plant." She indicated a German word. "This way!"


	5. Chapter 5

In the barracks Lucy faced a Cylon doppelganger yet again. It was disconcerting to see her face marked with the sign of corruption, a feeling her very survival forced her to keep suppressed. As with prior Cylons she'd fought, she sensed the raw aggression and anger fueling her copy's movements and power. Her foe was given over, completely, to dark power, and it made the Cylon dangerous.  
  
Given the close quarters Lucy kept to the defensive, goading on her opponent with the swift defensive parries that frustrated all the attacks against her. She willingly gave ground as well, and this for another reason: by doing so, she was bringing her powerful enemy further from the others, especially Ursa and the Beifong cousins, that might otherwise be threatened by her doppelganger's sheer power.  
  
Her opposite went for a series of high attacks toward Lucy's head and shoulders, then dipped low with a swipe at Lucy's belly. Her blue lightsaber intercepted the red five centimeters from her armor. The lightsaber pulled back, but instead of another strike the next blow was from the Cylon's corrupted gifts. Her counterpart willed that Lucy be thrown backward. Lucy could not prevent that motion, but she could will herself to stop before she flew into the wall behind her, allowing her to roll from her back and to her feet. Her lightsaber came up and intercepted the overhead swipe at Lucy's head.  
  
Beside her, Gina fell back from her own doppelganger, evading one swipe at her shoulder and deflecting another. Unlike Lucy Gina did not hold back from any attacks, responding instead with a strike aimed at her counterpart's side. This was deflected at the last moment. Another series of exchanges resulted in frustrated attacks.  
  
Without looking at each other, Gina and Lucy knew what they were to do next, and moved in near-sync with each other. They moved away, side-stepping their attacking foes until they were facing the wall of the barracks. After thwarting attacks, they gathered their will and lashed out with their wills, bound together in common action.  
  
Their counterparts were ready for the attack, but they were mistaken about its intent. They steeled themselves for a solid wave of force against themselves. What happened instead was said force acting against the wall behind them, smashing it down and revealing the outside. Individual chunks of debris showered on them, causing injury and general irritation.  
  
This brought the opening for Lucy and Gina to slam their foes with pure force, throwing them through the open hole and outside of the barracks. Both tumbled across the ground before rolling to their feet, meeting Lucy and Gina's weapons with their own again.  
  
_Hopefully that will give the others the room they need_ , Lucy thought before she returned her attention to her deadly foe.  
  
  
  
  
On the _Aurora_ bridge, the deck shook from a missile impact. Tra'dur noted the loss in shield strength but did not immediately relay it, judging the change insufficient to warrant interrupting the orders Jarod and Meridina were issuing.  
  
At those orders, the _Aurora_ continuing maneuvering and firing. Her secondary weapons were busy spitting sapphire light beams at smaller enemy ships while her main bow battery pounded away at the enemy battlecruiser's shields. The enemy ship's super-disruptors fired in reply, aiming not at the _Aurora_ but the vessels in Hanraq's force. One of their void cruisers fell apart from the sheer damage to its structure from the direct hit.  
  
The _General Iroh_ came up and engaged before another super-disruptor shot could be fired, joining their barrage with one from the _Avatar Kiyoshi_.  
  
With all three ships focusing fire upon it, the Reich battlecruiser's shields were nearly out, and multiple wounds already showed on the dark hull of the SS ship. Around this combat the other ships were fighting Fassbinder's forces to a stalemate, buying time for their ground teams.  
  
Meridina sensed this would not be enough. Whatever shock Hanraq's flotilla caused the SS ships was rapidly fading. They were recovering quickly, and the battle was still one they might win. She looked to Jarod and said, "Have the _Koenig_ break away. They must get out of range of the enemy jamming system as quickly as they can and alert Admiral Maran."  
  
Jarod nodded and transmitted the order.  
  
  
  
  
For his part, Zack took the order without emotion. It worried him in that the battle was tight enough that without _Koenig_ in it, the SS could easily take the advantage back. But the reasoning was clear regardless, and the battle had forced a change in the enemy formation sufficient that the _Koenig_ had an opening to get away. "Break us away from the combat space," he ordered Hajar. "Maintain evasives until we're clear to make the jump to warp."  
  
"Aye sir," Hajar answered.  
  
The _Koenig_ twisted, breaking off from a fight with an SS-crewed _A-2000_ gunboat and racing for open space beyond a formation of cruisers. Their disruptors blazed away with lethal emerald light, missiles joining them. Some of these hit the shields of the attack ship, but only some: Hajar's maneuvers evaded most of the incoming fire, and at tactical April Sherlily's skilled use of the _Koenig_ 's weapon systems eliminated a number of the incoming missiles. The gunboat they were engaged with followed, pulse disruptor cannons blazing away as it pursued its quarry. It might have caused them some problems if not for one of the United Republic destroyer-sized ships, which engaged with missiles and a barrage of purple-hued energy fire that forced the gunboat to break off.  
  
A corkscrew maneuver brought the _Koenig_ through the disruptor fire of an enemy cruiser and toward open space. Hajar immediately started the process of powering up the warp drives.  
  
"Enemy warp signatures!" cried Magda from Ops. "They're dropping out of warp right…"  
  
She didn't need to finish. The viewer showed Zack all he needed to see, as another dozen enemy vessels came out of warp ahead of the _Koenig_. Which, by its maneuvers, made itself their first logical target.  
  
The disruptor beams and missiles and torpedoes converged on the attack ship as Hajar swiftly changed her heading. With her impulsors to full the _Koenig_ was agile enough to evade much of the incoming fire, but given the enemy behind them firing as well, they could not evade everything. Disruptor hits degraded shields already worn by the intense fighting, with a couple of the enemy missiles managing partial strikes against unshielded hull.  
  
"We have a plasma leak on the starboard nacelle, shock damage," Magda reported. "Warp drive inoperable."  
  
Zack clenched a fist at the news. _Now we can't escape. They've got numbers on us. The_ Aurora _will never get away. C'mon, Rob, take out that jammer already…!_  
  
  
  
The newly-arriving SS vessels not only stopped the _Koenig_ 's withdrawal, they immediately shifted the battle back in their side's favor. Meridina watched with quiet grief at the annihilation of one of the Republic cruisers, overwhelmed by three enemy cruisers before it could evade the incoming fire. SS destroyers came screaming in on a torpedo run on the _Avatar Kiyoshi_ herself. Angel's quick thinking and quicker trigger finger kept that torpedo run from completiong, as the _Aurora_ 's torpedoes and plasma fire intersected the destroyers' attack vector, forcing them to break off with one destroyer badly damaged. Nevertheless five torpedoes struck the Republic battleship, degrading the shields as they were designed to do.  
  
"Suggestions?" she asked.  
  
"If we could slip a runabout equipped with a portable IU radio out, they might be able to get away," Jarod proposed.  
  
"The enemy's numbers would make pursuit and destruction far too easy," Tra'dur pointed out. The ship rocked from another solid hit by the enemy battlecruiser. "Shields down to twenty-nine percent, Captain."  
  
"We must buy time," Meridina said. "Divert all available power to tactical systems."  
  
"Aye Captain."  
  
_It is in your hands,_ she thought, considering the ground team.  
  
  
  
  
  
Two crimson lightsabers swung toward Robert while a third nearly clipped Talara's right arm. Her lavender-colored blade came up to catch the next strike. She was holding her own, barely, but with increasing confidence.  
  
Robert caught one of the incoming blades with his own while he maneuvered to the side, allowing the other to harmlessly slash across the very edge of his left shoulder. He felt nothing but a twinge of painful heat, indicating the blow barely penetrated his armor there, not even enough to endanger his arm's function. He continued his maneuver and directed his will toward the SS trooper who gave the successful strike. By instinct he not only hit his opponent with enough power to overcome defenses, he also threw the SS soldier into one of his compatriots menacing the Beifong cousins. Both toppled to the floor. Before they could get up Yeshe bent the air down around them, creating a downward gust to keep them down long enough for Komin to bend the metal frames of a couple of nearby fallen bunks, turning them into ad hoc restraints to tie down the two men.  
  
This opened Robert up to his other opponent, but said foe never got to exploit that opening. A bolt of blue flame slammed into the Nazi before he could strike, throwing him off-balance. Ursa quickly struck him with more bolts, culminating with a vertical kick that created a wave of blue flame that not only set the trooper on fire, it knocked him onto his rear.  
  
Freed from battle, Robert turned to help Talara against her foe. He immediately saw it was unnecessary, as Talara's lavender blade was already scything through the man's extended arms, removing them at the elbow. A cry of surprise was cut off by Yeshe blasting the same with a gust of wind that knocked him back into one of the standing bunk frames. Komin moved his hands in the air and the wire frame parts of the bunks bent with the motions, forming rings around the soldier's arms and ankles to hold him in place.  
  
With only the Cylons left to fight, Robert turned to do so, but they were missing. He'd been so occupied with his own opponents he missed someone blowing out one of the walls, and Lucy and Gina were gone, as were their foes. _Lucy, where are you? We can help!  
  
No! The _Aurora _needs us to take out that jamming device! We've got this!_  
  
Robert felt worry. Despite the confidence, he could sense Lucy forcing some of the confidence. She was in a difficult fight, as was Gina, and victory was not guaranteed at all.  
  
_Go Rob!_  
  
Her insistence was persuasive. Robert's own feeling that he needed to heed it decided the issue for him. He motioned to the far door, the one their opponents had originally gone through, and said, "This way."  
  
The others fell in with him. It was just the five of them now, given the ongoing battles around them. They continued a path through the central tower toward its heart. "This jamming device, do you have an idea on where to find it?" asked Talara.  
  
Robert shook his head. "Not sure, but I can feel a pull in this direction. I think it's where we need to be."  
  
Behind them Komin was taking in their surroundings. "The design of this place doesn't give any clues as to where to look. But maybe instead of finding the jammer, we should find the city's power core."  
  
Talara responded by checking her omnitool as they ran. "Power emissions are this way," she said. "If we…"  
  
The sight ahead brought them to a stop. Numerous SS men were unconscious on the floor. None showed signs of being shot by weapons, but they had visible burns in some cases and blunt trauma in others. "None of ours have been this way, have they?" Robert asked.  
  
"I do not believe so."  
  
"Miko," said Ursa. "She is free!"  
  
"Not just Miko." Talara's omnitool was on wide-scanning mode. "I've got blood traces in this hall. They match Captain Andreys!"  
  
Robert felt a surge of elation, followed immediately by worry. Julia being free brought that elation, just for him to consider what it might mean if their enemies got to her first. They might just kill her over escaping.  
  
"I wonder where they're going?" Yeshe asked aloud. "Certainly they would try to leave the complex."  
  
As the Airbender posed that question, Robert's eyes ventured to a sign bolted onto the wall, arrows matched with the SS-preferred Gothic German script. Reading the entries, a small smile came to his face. "I think I know what they're doing," he said. "Come on!"  
  
They turned the corner, and danger prompted both Robert and Talara to turn and raise their weapons, deflecting the incoming fire. A squad of SS troopers was approaching from the other direction. "Go on!" Talara urged. "I'll hold them!"  
  
The Beifongs stepped up to join her. "We'll watch your back, Highness," Komin said. "Get to Miko!"  
  
Robert and Ursa turned and continued on, spurred by the desire to regain their loved ones as much as they were the mission at hand.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Miko was the first into the chamber where the city's power was being provided. Julia walked in behind her and fought down the strong desire to just stop. Whatever cocktail of combat drugs had been in that syringe, it was clearly wearing down. Nor was she sure another dose was wise, if it resulted in an overdose.  
  
Fortunately the defenders of the room were not so much that Miko couldn't take them. Again the young woman sprung into action. Julia noted her fighting style and thought she recognized some of it, bringing to mind exhibitions she'd seen of Shaolin practitioners. And another style too, but one she couldn't remember. She was still getting used to the fire and air manipulation involved. Miko's attacks were swift enough that none of the enemy got off more than a wildly-inaccurate shot that hit nothing.  
  
Julia moved on into the room and approached what looked like a control station. It was rigged to a triangle-shaped middle platform, with three distinct circles in the surface with black outlining like a framework, and an orange-yellow glow emanating from within. She examined the station, her knowledge of German tested by the effort.  
  
Behind her, Miko twisted on her foot, her fist coming up in a motion that the air on the floor followed, creating an upward gust of air that blew the weapon right out of the hands of her last opponent. She continued the circular motion and swung her other arm forward, creating a second powerful gust of air, more of a horizontal tornado, that sent the soldier flying into the wall behind him. "Do you know what to do?"  
  
"I'm not sure. My German's never been the best." Julia blinked and forced her tired mind to think. _It looks like the SS weren't sure how this worked either. The power source is beyond their technology… looking at these figures, it's even more advanced than naqia-based power generation. What is…_  
  
Without warning pain erupted across the surface of her body. Julia let out a cry and collapsed, stunned by the ferocity of it. _The nanobots!_ was the agonized thought that came to her.  
  
Miko heard her scream and turned toward her. Through the portal beyond, Erik Fassbinder stood, flanked on each side by a soldier. A sinister sneer formed on his face while malevolent glee shined in his unnatural yellow eyes. He pulled his right hand away from the gauntlet on his left hand and wrist. "Well well, I see you had some fight left in you," he noted. "Perhaps we should have put you through sessions as well."  
  
"Leave her alone!" Miko went into motion a moment later, diving for cover as a green energy beam came at her, narrowly missing. She hit the floor opposite of the power station. Another strangled cry came from Julia as Miko crouched in readiness.  
  
"We have you cornered, _untermensch_ ," Fassbinder continued. "Your… metaphysical talents will not avail you, especially against me." He nodded to the soldiers, who moved forward to flank Miko.  
  
Through the pain Julia tried to command her body to move. To tackle, to retrieve her own stolen weapon, _anything_ , but the nanobots were doing their job too well. She simply couldn't do more than writhe from her body's desperate, instinctive attempt to escape overpowering agony. The only thing her effort gave her was another strangled cry.  
  
"You have much spirit, _Kapitan_ , but it will be broken." Fassbinder tapped at the gauntlet again, or rather an omnitool interface that formed around the same lower arm. A holo-viewer popped into place showing video from orbit. The _Aurora_ was central to it. Blackened patches of hull were visible, and the blue flickering of her deflectors was noticeably weakening. Beside her a small vessel with a dark gray hull was suffering from multiple hull breaches and related fires. "I wanted you to watch as your precious ship dies. With all of your friends aboard."  
  
Through the pain Julia noticed the viewer. Desperation filled her at the sight.  
  
"I have called for reinforcements from the fleet. Your allies on the planet may hold out for a time, but they will be overwhelmed," he continued. "Their rescue attempt will be for naught. I suppose I could just kill you here…" A wicked grin came to his face. "But we have so much left to do, _Kapitan_ , so very many things…"  
  
By this point his troops were almost in position. Each was ready for Miko to pop from cover as well.  
  
Not quite as ready, perhaps, for her to come at one of them.  
  
Which is precisely what she did, with flames streaming from her feet. Instead of bending air or fire at her target, the one coming from Fassbinder's right, she tackled him physically with such speed that both went flying into the wall. Or rather, her foe did, but she jumped away at the last moment, again with such speed that the other soldier was still tracking to shoot at her. She hit the floor hands first and swept her legs parallel to the ground. A wave of flame rushed across the room and slammed into the SS trooper and his weapon, knocking it out of his hands as he hit the ground.  
  
She was turning to Fassbinder when the lightning stuck her. The same purple tinged lightning Fassbinder had tormented Julia with for days enveloped Miko, drawing a cry of agony from her as she went to her knees.  
  
"Do you think your talents are a match for mine?! Against my superior blood, my natural perfection, and the power that it is enhanced by?!" Fassbinder intensified the lightning shooting from his hands. "I know what you are supposed to be, and it makes me laugh! A whelp like you is the champion of your world, their precious Avatar?! How pathetic! You are _nothing_!"  
  
Through clenched teeth MIko forced herself back up to one foot. The pain was excruciating. She felt like the energy assailing her was not just harming her body but her spirit, draining her vitality. It was going to kill her.  
  
She glanced toward Julia, who visibly struggled with the pain paralyzing her. Her eyes were locked on the viewer hovering over Fassbinder's lower left arm, the viewer showing her ship struggling to survive, turning and twisting and taking fire and returning it. Julia's head twisted to face hers, and while there was pain in her green eyes, Miko saw the same determination she'd noticed before.  
  
They'd come so far, despite everything.  
  
And, Miko decided, they would go further still.  
  
With a roar of pain and defiance forming in her throat, MIko gathered her energy and swung her right fist forward. Flame erupted from the air in front of her fist, forming a vast crimson tongue that enveloped Fassbinder's left arm. He let out a surprised, agonized shriek and stumbled backward, the lightning he was channeling into her ceasing. Freed from it Miko rose to her feet and channeled a gust of wind that slammed Fassbinder against the far wall. It didn't knock him out, but it bought her another few seconds.  
  
Her… and Julia.  
  
The flame hadn't merely harmed Fassbinder. Miko's power made it hot enough to melt the circuitry of the composite materials inside his gauntlet. The loss of signal disengaged the nanobots that were tormenting her. The pain filling her body ceased. She remained on the floor for a moment, gasping for air.  
  
Her eyes remained fixed on the screen still beside Fassbinder's forearm, the holo-viewer displaying the ongoing fight in orbit, and her ship, her friends, continuing a desperate struggle to survive… a struggle to save _her_.  
  
_Why isn't the rest of the fleet here?_ she wondered. _Why haven't they called in help? The comm systems or jump anchor couldn't have been taken out that quickly_ …  
  
Fassbinder got back to his feet and channeled his lightning again. Miko dodged to the side and threw another bolt of flame at him, one he dodged as well with speed beyond normal human levels. Undaunted Miko nearly caught him with a wide-arcing wind gust generated by a roundhouse kicking motion, causing him to fall back into the wall, but not knocking him down.  
  
Julia forced herself to think. _They can't call for help… that's it. That's the jammer mentioned before._ She wasn't sure how, but something about this city - a city that was clearly made by another species, not the Darglan - something _in_ this city allowed the SS to jam interuniversal technology.  
  
How much power would that require? She wasn't sure, but she suspected it might be a lot. And that meant her instincts had been right. They had to disable the power systems.  
  
Her muscles protested Julia's commands to move. She ignored the resulting pain, the ache, demanding her legs and arms to shift. To get her back on her feet. The effort was taking everything she had left, with the combat drugs now nearly depleted, but she _had_ to move. Her ship, her friends, her comrades, _her crew_ , they all needed her to **_move_**.  
  
She got back to her knees while, nearby, Fassbinder caught Miko with a blast of lightning even as she nailed him with another fire blast. Both faltered, which let Miko avoid the follow-up attack. Julia reached up and used the nearby station to pull herself up. She didn't know if she could stand, but at least she could reach the controls. She read over the German language on the display and, by more intuition than knowledge, hit one of the keys.  
  
The three circles on the triangular platform rose. Underneath the flat top of each circle, the rest looked almost like a crystal, still glowing that same yellow color. Black lines ran over the objects. Whatever they were, she wasn't sure, but it was clear they were part of the power system.  
  
Behind her now, Miko somersaulted over another burst of lightning from Fassbinder. Julia overheard the snap-hiss of a lightsaber activating, and the fast buzz of it scything through the air. Fassbinder grunted a moment later, having presumably missed his attack on Miko.  
  
Julia gripped the station and pulled herself up. Her arms threatened to quit. Her legs didn't want to take her weight. She made them. She _forced_ them. This got her high enough to lean over the platform and start removing the crystalline objects. The light within each died as she pulled them out, one after the other.  
  
When the last one came out, the room's lights temporarily died before flashing back on.  
  
Julia had only seconds to feel victorious before Miko slammed into her, sending both to the ground. Before she could even begin to think of moving, Fassbinder's deadly lightning played over her and over Miko, drawing cries from both.  
  
" _Enough games_ ," he roared, his voice full of impatience. " _Die!_ "  
  
  
  
  
  
The _Aurora_ bridge shook once more under the command crew, straining them against their harnesses. "Shields down to nine percent, cohesion loss is escalating," Tra'dur reported from Ops.  
  
Meridina didn't react. There was no point. The _Aurora_ , while fighting back, was under as much fierce fire as the other ships. The _General Iroh_ was nearly crippled at this point, the _Koenig_ was suffering major damage, and multiple flames and hull breaches were visible on the _Avatar Kiyoshi_. By all appearances, the battle was lost.  
  
And yet, Meridina did not feel like they were lost.  
  
"Maintain fire," she ordered.  
  
On her board Tra'dur noted the damage increasing to the ship's hull. Ensign Mallory, at Engineering, reported the loss of ten percent effectiveness in the armor self-repair systems, while she noted the system damage from the incoming fire no longer being stopped by the failing deflectors.  
  
For the hundredth time since the battle began, Tra'dur checked the IU comm system.  
  
Even as she did, Cat cried out, "Captain, the interference pattern from the planet, it's dissipating!"  
  
Meridina felt the hope fill the others. Tra'dur breathed a silent prayer of thanks to her own gods and preempted Meridina's command of "Contact Defense Command with our situation". She sent the signal out into the network, including a data packet on everything happening, including the enemy concentration.  
  
The ship shook again. One of the remaining Republic ships came apart from an SS-fired missile, leaving only half a dozen of them, most nearly crippled. A disruptor beam created a plasma leak in the lower starboard nacelle.  
  
_Did they receive us_? Tra'dur wondered. _They should have received us, they're not going to just…_  
  
Her board blinked. "Multiple signatures are locking onto our jump drive!" she called out.  
  
Moments later, the natural result came. "Interuniversal jump points forming!" Caterina cried.  
  
Given the events of the past week, this no longer carried the immediate and instinctive relief it used to, even given Tra'dur's report. Not until Cat added, "They're ours!"  
  
Even as a multitude of Alliance starships appeared, more jump points formed. Cat tried to identify individual ships, but she gave up when their number hit thirty. Her screens showed a varied number of vessels. Earth Confederacy ships, Sol Republic, Colonial Confederation, a number of the Alliance dedicated designs…  
  
...and Gersallians. _Lots_ of Gersallians.  
  
The arriving Alliance fleet engaged with a gleeful vigor. Weapons fire of all types descended upon the SS flotilla. An SS cruiser trying to finish off the _General Iroh_ found itself assailed by an Alakin warbird, two Dorei starbirds, and a Sol Republic cruiser. Gersallian destroyers launched a barrage of torpedoes that blasted away the shields of another SS cruiser, allowing one of the arriving _Excalibur_ -class battlecruisers, the _Zulfiqar_ , to devastate the cruiser with its powerful pulse plasma cannon armament. Another of the same, the _Kusanagi_ , blew apart an _Innsbruck_ with her starboard weapons even as her bow armament wrecked a _Sedan_ -class ship. SS destroyers attempting a torpedo run on the _Avatar Kiyoshi_ found themselves under the gun from multiple _Trigger_ -class attack ships, cousins of the _Koenig_ , and a light Dorei starbird.  
  
The command officers on the _Avatar Kiyoshi_ were more than grateful from the sight, and also quite astonished. The variety of the incoming ships was like nothing they'd imagined.  
  
"We're picking up a signal from one of the incoming vessels," Tra'dur noted. "It's the _Kentan_."  
  
" _This is Admiral Maran of the Allied Systems to friendly vessels_ ," stated the esteemed Gersallian admiral. " _Do what you must to protect yourselves. We will assume your burden._ "  
  
Even as he spoke, Meridina and Hanraq and Saizen and Zack all noted the _Kentan_ joining the fray, turning her guns on the SS battlecruiser trying to kill the _Aurora_ and _Avatar Kiyoshi_. Powerful beams started eviscerating the damaged battlecruiser, which lacked the shield strength to resist the _Kentan_ 's batteries. The tactical officers on the Gersallian flagship proved efficient in their carving up of the SS vessel.  
  
The SS ships responded gradually, without cohesion, with one clear goal: escape. And with that came an end to the threat against the _Aurora_ and the other vessels that had fought so hard at their side.  
  
  
  
  
Fassbinder's rage, his hate, poured through his being and into the lightning assailing Julia and Miko. They struggled, they cried out, but nothing could free them from the grip of the lightning.  
  
Fassbinder was so focused on them that he failed to notice the arrival of Robert and Ursa. They stormed through the door to find the sight of their loved ones under his assault. Ursa rushed forward, driven by maternal fury, and thrust both palms forward, screaming, " _Leave my daughter alone!_ "  
  
As she did, Robert took in Miko's features. Recognition shot through his mind. He'd seen her before, in his dreams, in the visions the Flow of Life had often given him. The same red and gold outfit, tattered, the same face and amber-colored eyes.  
  
And beneath and beside her, Julia was laid out, spent utterly. Just seeing her brought a surge of emotions through him. Worry for her condition, relief that she was alive, happiness that he'd found her, he wasn't going to lose her...  
  
He was so intent on that that he didn't sense the danger until it was too late.  
  
The blue flame that came from Ursa's palms was so tight as to almost be a beam. Fassbinder reacted almost immediately, moving just enough to avoid the flame. He turned to face his new foe and the lightning from his hand followed, enveloping Ursa. She stopped in place, seized by it, and struggled to move forward.  
  
Fassbinder didn't give her the chance. He shot forward and plunged his lightsaber into her chest.  
  
Robert was already in the middle of reacting as the crimson energy blade came out through Ursa's back. She let out a surprised, pained choke as his hands came up. Raw power rushed from his being and struck Fassbinder, or rather his gathering defenses. Fassbinder turned his lightning on Robert, who intercepted it with his lightsaber.  
  
Whatever battle they might have had was terminated with a loud, terrible wail. " _Mother!_ " screamed Miko. Grief and horror filled the young woman at the sight of her fallen parent. " _MOTHER! NO!_ " Both combatants _felt_ the power shift in the room, a sudden and terrifying thing.  
  
Again Miko cried out, " ** _NOOOO!!!_** ", and with that cry power, pure energy, _surged_ and exploded from around her. Her eyes flashed to pure white and the air beneath her wrapped around until it literally picked her up from the ground. She looked to Fassbinder with pain and rage written on her face, while the SS officer was utterly transfixed by the raw power he felt inside of Miko. So transfixed, in fact, that he did nothing to stop the flame that erupted from her outstretched hand. It enveloped the right side of his body, drawing from Fassbinder an agonized and terrified scream. A wind gust exploded from Miko, throwing both Robert and Fassbinder back into the chamber wall, even pushing Julia's prone form at least one meter away from Miko. The wind and the impact put out most of the flames afflicting Fassbinder.  
  
Robert managed to absorb the impact partially with his own power, keeping it from causing injury. He stared at the sight of Miko, her eyes glowing with solid white light, sheer _power_ circulating around her. The Flow of Life itself seemed to burn with the intensity of the energies. Indeed, there seemed to be an entirely new presence within Miko, as if a second being was manifesting within and through her, fueling this display of raw energy.  
  
With the right side of his face a massive burn, Fassbinder reached his left hand out. One of the crystalline power core pieces flew through the air and into his palm. A finger on the right hand, burnt as well, struck at the omnitool interface over his left forearm. He bellowed " _Transport me now!_ " in German and vanished in a column of bright light.  
  
Miko screamed in frustration. Not just at Fassbinder's escape, as Robert could feel her terror at the realization that she couldn't control this power raging inside and around her. The winds still whipped around her, turning Miko into the center of a tornado. Robert took a step forward and felt like the wind might throw him off his feet.  
  
Nearby Julia's head rose. Her eyes widened at the sight of Miko.  
  
"Julia! Julia, help me!" Miko cried. "I… I can't control it!"  
  
  
  
  
The sudden feeling of a surge of power interrupted the ongoing duel that had now made its way to the outside of the city. Lucy parried a blow from her clone while Gina, behind her, had an offensive strike parried in turn. These were the last strikes made as all four felt the energy whipping up within the city's heart. "My God, what is that?" Lucy gasped.  
  
Their counterparts briefly seemed ready to keep fighting, but their aggressive intent suddenly vanished. Frowns came to them. "We will end this another time," Lucy's clone informed her, her hand going to her belt. Gina's copy did the same, and both were claimed by the buzzing white light of transporters.  
  
Lucy lowered her weapon. "Damn," she muttered at the escape of their foes.  
  
  
  
  
The Six and the Twelve materialized inside one of their heavy raiders, already launching from the tower. They found Fassbinder at the controls with one of the alien power generators beside his foot. The right side of his head was a burnt ruin, as was his right hand, and his uniform was still smoldering. He looked to them with savage fury in his intact left eye and they opted not to inquire. Behind them, more of his personnel were transporting aboard.  
  
The Six sat down beside him at the controls. "Alliance fighters are inbound," she noted. "We must flee."  
  
"The fold drive is already spooled," Fassbinder said. "Get us out of here."  
  
The Six nodded, her disheveled blond locks shifting position on her head as they did. She reached for the controls and tapped several keys. "Rendezvous point coordinates loaded. Jumping."  
  
The Cylon vessel jumped away in a flash of white light.  
  
  
  
  
"I can't control it!" Miko wailed. And she couldn't. She knew what this was, of course; the Avatar State, which she'd never experienced before. She never imagined it had so much power, and that power was now wrapped up with her fury, her horror, while before her Ursa was laying on the ground, wounded badly. Mortally, she feared.  
  
Robert watched her with fascination and worry. He'd seen this before. Another of the dreams, the visions from his life force, was now coming to fruition. But he didn't know how this would end.  
  
Hearing Miko's words, Julia tried to rise. It was a struggle to do so, not just from the winds, but from a sheer lack of energy inside of her for such movement. With a cry of effort she managed to get herself up to all fours. Her limbs threatened to quit on her.  
  
They never got the chance. The winds grabbed her first. She felt like she'd been sucked into a tornado and could do nothing as she was pulled into the air.  
  
Robert, panicked by the prospect of Julia being smashed against a wall head-first, reached out with his own power and plucked her from the air. She shot through the winds to his side, and he held tightly to her, spreading his power to protect her from the winds. "We have to get to Miko!" she called out to him.  
  
"Hold on!" With his right arm holding Julia around the waist as tightly as he could and his left stretched before him, Robert forced himself forward one step at a time. The winds threatened to tear Julia from him, or to draw them both off their feet, forcing Robert to focus the power in his own being to absorb the wind. It sloughed around him gradually, allowing him to make the forward movement.  
  
When they were within arm's length of Miko Julia mustered every erg of energy she could to reach up and take Miko's ankle. Robert took it as well. They couldn't pull her down, but the contact helped as Robert projected himself into both. He became the bridge, allowing Julia to reach for the anguished turmoil and fear inside of Miko. Robert reached into the Flow of Life and its warmth, projecting it into Miko, while Julia's voice filled the room. "Miko, it's okay! You're safe. He's gone. We can still help your mother! Please, Miko, you can control this!"  
  
"I… I can't," she protested. "I'm… I'm not strong enough!"  
  
" _Yes you are!_ " Julia insisted. "I know you are! I've seen you! You can do this, Miko! Trust me!"  
  
As she spoke Robert continued to fill Miko's being with the power of the Flow of Life. He felt it resonate within Miko, and through that he felt her own connection to it, through it. He sensed now the presence within her, a great and powerful force. A gentle blue and white light suffused her being in his senses, and a formless being around Miko took on a translucent appearance as if an aura.  
  
"Mother." Tears flowed down Miko's face. "My mother!"  
  
Robert felt for Ursa. She was hurt. Badly. But her life was there, and he connected Miko to it. _Your mother is alive, Miko. She's still with us.  
  
I don't want to lose her!  
  
I know.  
  
We both do_, Julia added.  
  
Together, they shared their pain with her. Their mothers, their fathers, were gone. They knew the pain she feared, and they would not see her suffer it. Not here, not in this way.  
  
_The power is within you, Miko_ , Robert projected into her. _You can control this. Just as I had to!_ He shared with her his fears about his own powers once they expanded. His fears. His need to accept the power, to focus on it and control his use of it.  
  
"You're strong enough," Julia added, speaking aloud. "Take control. You can do it."  
  
Their thoughts, Robert's power, Julia's words, they got through to Miko. She closed her eyes and focused on the power. She felt within. _I am the Avatar. I control this, it does not control me._ With that thought echoing in her head, in her heart and very being, Miko's will focused on the power and directed it. She bid the winds to die down, and so they did. She ordered calm within, and the calm came, grudgingly, but it did so.  
  
Miko dropped to the ground and then down to her knees. Immediately she crawled over to her fallen mother and pulled her up to embrace her. She wept. "Mother, hold on."  
  
Robert turned toward the door in time to see Komin, Talara, and Yeshe enter. They all showed signs of having been in a vicious fight, but none looked deeply harmed by it. Instead their concern immediately went for Miko and Ursa. "Spirits, what happened here?" Yeshe asked.  
  
"She needs medical attention," Robert said. "We…"  
  
Julia reached for his face. "Robert, help me. I know where to take her!"  
  
Despite the hoarseness of Julia's strained voice, Robert understood completely. He picked her up, lifting her feet from the ground in what was effectively a bridal carry. "Get Ursa!" he called to the others.  
  
The Beifong cousins did so, and Komin took the burden of carrying her while Talara tried to focus her power on Ursa's lightsaber wound.  
  
Julia didn't speak, and didn't need to. Robert sensed what she was thinking and where she thought they needed to go, and he led the others out of the power chamber. Their destination was in the tower, indeed on this floor, and while Julia wasn't completely sure of the direction, Robert felt the Flow of Life direct him toward it. He sensed her recognition of the halls, the rooms around them, the stairs they went past.  
  
They entered a room dominated by a tank full of green fluid, attached to a wider series of fluid tanks. "Put her in! Quickly!" Julia urged.  
  
Komin carried Ursa up the metal steps beside the tank, eventually bringing him high enough to set Ursa into it. Talara used her powers to levitate the breather mask onto Ursa's face in the second before they dropped her in with a splash of the green fluid. Robert couldn't help but notice the restraint frame built into the tank, and he wasn't surprised when the controls Julia directed him toward included a dial marked for voltage. Yeshe stepped up beside him and set her hands on it. "I do not understand this," she admitted.  
  
"Raise the circulation," Julia instructed. "That's what I overheard them talking about."  
  
Robert found the controls for such and shared them with Yeshe, who operated the console. Machinery began to thrum and vital signs flashed on a holo-screen. Ursa's body was in bad shape, Robert was sure, but the system seemed to consider her saveable.  
  
Miko stepped up to the tank and looked into it. She set a hand on the tank while, within, Ursa's eyes opened slowly. "Mother," she said, setting her hand on the tank. Tears flowed freely down her eyes.  
  
Within, Ursa slowly did the same.  
  
Robert and Julia watched as he took a seat on the ground, his arms still holding Julia. He turned his eyes to hers at feeling her hand weakly touch his shaven chin. "You shaved? Finally?" she croaked.  
  
"Yeah." Tears were welling into his eyes. "For you."  
  
"For me." Tears formed in hers as well. She let out a small, low laugh. "And you cut your hair. You look… you look like you again." She giggled. "It took all of this to get you to do that!"  
  
He laughed in response, fighting back a sniffle. "Yeah, I guess so."  
  
For a moment they continued to chuckle and laugh, even as the tears flowed down their cheeks. Robert felt the lingering pain inside of her and tried to soothe it as best as he could, and Julia could feel him try. "You were trying to help me," Julia said in realization. "When I was in that chair…"  
  
"I tried. Until I could get to you. Rescue you."  
  
"Like you promised."  
  
"Yeah. Like I promised."  
  
Julia nodded. She still let out a few giggles, but gradually the giggling became sobbing. All of the pain, the fear that she would never get away from Fassbinder, the despair that she would never see Robert, her Robby, again, never see any of them again, it all just came flooding out of her in deep sobs.  
  
Robert felt that. His own fears and despair that he'd lose Julia, his Julie, to the lingering and horrible death Fassbinder planned for her, and that he'd destroy who he was trying to save her, make himself unworthy of her, it flowed out too. His laughter became sobbing in turn, and he tightened the embrace, as if Julia might yet be yanked away, while he felt Julia embrace him with what little energy she had left.  
  
Given the ordeal behind them, there could be no surprise they cried. But there was happiness in that crying.  
  
After all, they were crying _together_.  
  
  
  
 **Tag**  
  
  
  
 _Ship's Log: ASV Aurora; 24 October 2643 AST. Captain Meridina reporting. Our rescue mission has been a complete success. Captain Andreys and Princess Miko have been recovered from SS captivity. The SS exiles' forces have been dealt a telling blow with our victory over their trap against us. The Alliance fleet is continuing to secure the system and perform search-and-rescue operations for those vessels crippled or destroyed in the battle, with the aid of another force of vessels from the United Republic and affiliated states. There is much we still have to learn about these Humans and their particular nature, but there is no doubting their courage and willingness to stand against the forces of darkness.  
  
While this victory has not removed the threat we now face, I believe it has aided with the morale of not only our crew, but the entire Alliance. I have found my own spirit recovering from the shock of what happened to Gersal and New Liberty._  
  
  
When Jarod arrived in the ready office, Meridina was staring out the window at the sight of the ships around them. The battered _Avatar Kiyoshi_ was now joined by a sister ship, the _Avatar Aang_ , which looked pristine compared to the damage of the former. She turned from the sight to face Jarod. "What have you found?"  
  
"Anders and his Marines came through for us," Jarod said. "They took the enemy command center before they could complete a memory wipe. We didn't get everything, but we've recovered quite a lot of information and intelligence."  
  
"That is excellent news. Do we know more about their remaining facilities?"  
  
"Some. There are four more SS bases we have coordinates for, and Maran's already sent parts of the fleet to deal with them." Jarod's expression showed his satisfaction at that. "A couple are in universes we haven't entered yet."  
  
"Then we may yet find other allies like Princess Ursa and her world." Meridina returned to her seat. "I feel as if we have made a first contact that, on its own, would have been a momentous occasion."  
  
"People who can literally influence elemental forces with their own will and bodies?" Jarod chuckled. "Oh yeah. I mean, biotics is one thing, there's a physical aspect to it. The same with psionics. But this is more like your abilities. It's all metaphysical. Leo's already confirmed there's nothing in their physiology that powers this."  
  
"Indeed." Meridina gave Jarod an intent look. "And now, Commander Jarod, I would suggest you get some sleep. We all need the rest."  
  
"So do you," Jarod pointed out. Meridina sensed his concern. "Julia… do you think she'll be okay?"  
  
"She has suffered a terrible ordeal. It may be some time before we know for sure," Meridina said. "But I am confident she will persevere. And she will return to us, when she is ready."  
  
"And when the service agrees to it. I'm sure they'll require evaluations before letting her resume command. In the meantime…"  
  
"In the meantime, we will do what we must, to ensure everything is here for her to return to."  
  
"Right." Jarod let out a small sigh. "Well, I'd better get some rest. And so should you."  
  
"As I said, I intend to," Meridina assured him. "And I will see you in the morning."  
  
  
  
  
The door to the medbay OR slid open and Leo emerged, Doctors Opani and Hreept behind him. The latter two went to remove their surgical scrubs while Leo approached the waiting patients and visitors in the receiving area. Julia and Miko were in anti-grav chairs. Robert, Lucy, Gina, Talara, and the Beifong cousins were crowded around them. Miko especially showed deep apprehension when Leo stopped in front of them. "Your mother's going to be fine," he assured her. "She took some severe damage to vital organs and her spine, but whatever that healing fluid is down there, it stabilized her condition enough that we were able to repair the organs with replicated tissue. She's not a hundred percent yet, but I'm confident she's going to recover. Right now she needs to recover for a while before we can begin the spinal repair operation."  
  
"Can I see her, Doctor?" Miko asked.  
  
"When we've got her in the Critical Care Ward, yes. The nurses should have her transferred shortly." He turned his attention to Julia. A deep frown came to his face.  
  
"I'll be okay, Leo," Julia said weakly.  
  
"Right. Well, you're going to be here for a few days," he told her. "And no duty until evaluations clear you."  
  
As he spoke, Robert felt Leo's quiet fury at what he'd found attached to Julia's body. The Eubian nanobots were nothing more than torture machines, and they'd left their mark on her nervous system.  
  
"I figured," she said. "And I'll be a cooperative patient, don't worry. Right now I… I'm just glad to be home." Julia's voice cracked as she spoke.  
  
Leo nodded. "I know. Let me go clean up and write my surgical report." He nodded to them and left.  
  
Miko looked toward Robert and Julia. "Thank you," she said, for the hundredth time it seemed. "For saving my mother. I... the last time we talked we fought. We were each angry. I don't want that to be the final things we said to each other."  
  
"I understand that, and no thanks are necessary," Robert assured her.  
  
Miko gave him a small smile before turning to the Beifong cousins, who pushed her chair to take them to wait in Critical Care.  
  
"Thanks for coming for me," Julia said to the others. "Thanks for everything."  
  
"Just returning the favor," Lucy said softly. "You pulled me out of a torture chamber too, remember?".  
  
"Duffy," Julia said simply.  
  
"We should leave you two to talk," Lucy added, glancing to the others. She looked back to Robert and continued, "Although we should talk about Gina."  
  
"I already processed the paperwork to add her to the team," he said.  
  
"There's… another matter involved with that which we need to go into," Lucy said. "But it can wait." After sharing a look with the others, the three walked out.  
  
Robert brought Julia back to the Standard Care Ward and helped her up onto her assigned bed. They were not alone here, as wounded from the battle filled nearly every bed. Julia laid down and closed her eyes for a moment. She savored the simple pleasure of a soft surface beneath her and a similarly-soft pillow under her head. With her eyes closed she didn't see Robert pull up a chair. But she did feel it when Robert took her right hand and held it within his. She opened her eyes and looked at him again. "You look better this way," she said.  
  
"I suppose I let the long hair and the beard go on for too long," he admitted. "A goatee and a mustache, maybe?"  
  
"I like you just the way you are," she replied. Julia felt her eyes droop close and let out a contented sigh. "I was afraid I'd never feel comfort again. Fassbinder was determined to let me have nothing."  
  
"He's a sadistic bastard. He was even before he tapped his potential," Robert said, his voice heated. "And we let him get away again."  
  
"We'll catch up to him eventually. And I can't imagine his bosses are going to be happy with him."  
  
"I wouldn't think so." Robert looked at Julia's face and let out a ragged breath. His emotions welled up within him again, relief being the most powerful. "Julie, I… I'm so sorry this happened. Maybe if I'd come to you on New Liberty…"  
  
"He would have murdered Beth," Julia said. "Just… be happy you got me back. Don't regret what happened, okay? We have enough regrets."  
  
"Yeah." He sniffled. "I…" Robert blinked back the tears in his eyes. "Oh God, I almost lost myself," he admitted. "I was so angry with myself and with Fassbinder, with everything getting between us… I could've become something terrible. I… I just couldn't stand the thought of losing you."  
  
"You didn't," she pointed out. "I was worried I'd never see you again. That you all died on the Colony. And that I was going to die there, alone, in pain. I was so scared that's how I was going to end. It didn't seem fair, not after everything we've done." She shook her head weakly. "I keep thinking back to all the times he was hurting me. How that might have been what the rest of my life was like."  
  
"He'll never touch you again," Robert insisted. "I swear to it."  
  
"Don't. You don't need to, and I don't want it," she said. "I just… right now, I want to stop that thinking. I want to forget it all happened. I just want to rest."  
  
There was little Robert could say at that point. He simply nodded and remained quiet, even as he sensed Julia gently slide into much-needed sleep.  
  
  
  
  
After leaving the medbay, Lucy and Gina left Talara to go rest and headed to Meridina's quarters. Meridina was in casual sleeping robes of cream white and blue, seated on her couch and reading a datapad when they entered. She looked up. "You fought a hard battle," she noted.  
  
"Tell me about it. I'm getting tired of my clones trying to kill me," Lucy said. "Hell, I wonder why they cloned me in the first place."  
  
"I am beginning to wonder if they knew, from the start, your potential for a connection to the Flow of Life," said Meridina.  
  
"I don't know. Although I thought it wasn't just hereditary? What guarantee would they have that a clone of me could use it?"  
  
"They might terminate any formed versions of you without the power," Gina said.  
  
"Right. Well, we have other things to discuss."  
  
"Indeed." Meridina set the pad down on her table. "Julia has been recovered. We have damaged the SS exiles. Certainly we have won a victory for the Light to offset what occurred. But so much remains unexplained."  
  
"I've got one big question for you," said Lucy. "Who took Swenya's Blade, and why?"  
  
"It wasn't the Inner Circle, that's clear," said Gina. "And the Order has found no evidence it was taken by one of our own during the attack."  
  
"At least nobody who survived," Lucy said. "But we do have another suspect. That mysterious ship that helped us, the one that bought us time to evacuate people. Who were they and what were they doing there?"  
  
"Who would steal the blade and turn around and help us?" Gina asked. "It doesn't make sense."  
  
"There is something about this we still do not know," Meridina remarked. "This calls for meditation."  
  
"And work," said Gina. "Ledosh gave his life to ensure we got the _Life of Reshan_ , not the Brotherhood. We need to figure out the secret he thought he'd found."  
  
"Well, we'll help in anyway we can," Lucy promised. "You've got the books in your room, right? Maybe I can get Jarod to help out too? He finished learning Gersallian, and he's always up for puzzles."  
  
"An excellent idea."  
  
"I'll take it up with him tomorrow, then," Lucy promised. She let out a tired breath. "I think we should get some rest too. It's been a tough week, and I have a feeling things are only going to get worse."  
  
"Indeed they will," noted Meridina. "The forces of darkness have revealed themselves to us, and their strength is greater than we imagined. We must be ready for their next move."  
  
Lucy and Gina nodded, and left to take up their own rest. Meridina, for her part, returned to her bedroom and laid down in her bed. She would get what rest she could, knowing that it would likely not last long for the Alliance, not with their enemies working together.  
  
But whatever came, Meridina had faith they would prevail in the end.


End file.
